Being careful not to assume everyone has knowledge of tools used when camping, as I pose the question, “What is Your Tent Peg?” do you get an image in your mind of a yellow plastic spike with a hook on the end used in combination with a rope to secure a tent in place? Tent pegs can be composed of a variety of materials such as aluminum or iron, but for me, the plastic sort is what I visualize. Even if you have never stayed outdoors on a camping adventure, I imagine you have erected a canopy at a ball game or two, and at times needed to secure it from the wind. Even today, I can picture an unsecured blue tent tumbling end over end across the grass at the Sportsplex because it lacked tent pegs.

Today, we have modern materials such as plastic, but in the book of Judges in Scripture, we discover that tent pegs were made of iron and became a key component in the amazing story of Jael. As someone who grew up in church hearing numerous Bible stories, I was amazed in early January when I was introduced for the first time to Jael in a study entitled Becoming His by my friend Ashlee. Then, four months later, her name was mentioned again as I listened to a podcast from John Ortberg. How had I never heard this story before? Was I just not paying attention or is it because the focus was usually on Deborah, not Jael?

Jael was an everyday housewife that God used in an amazing way to defeat evil in the form of a commander named Sisera. Erlingsson shares in Becoming His highlights of women, like Jael, “who would take their place in the battle and fight the way the Lord had equipped them to…For Jael, well, she used something that was solely designed to hold her tent down.” So, if God can use a tent peg through Jael to defeat evil, What is Your Tent Peg that God desires you to use to combat the evil in this world? As Erlingsson asks, “What are the skills and gifts, the seemingly mundane activities that your hands have grown accustomed to? He could be asking you to use those things to wage war against all that assails you.”

As you develop a Habit of Awareness, I encourage you to use available assessments to provide insight into how God has specifically gifted you. If you have already identified some spiritual gifts, how are you using those to His glory? What are the everyday skills that you might easily overlook that God could use to defeat the evil in this world? What abilities have you acquired in caring for your family that He could use to someone else’s benefit? Do you have the knowledge to repair items that are broken? Cook? Sew? Can you use your ability to read to help a child achieve their literacy goals?

It is doubtful that God will call you to drive a tent peg through the head of an evil commander, but I am certain He has called you to use the gifts He provided to you for a bigger purpose. Over the last month, it has been a delight to witness people using their talents, the skills and equipment they already possess to benefit the community around them, whether it is sewing masks or creating PPE to help defeat COVID. Numerous accounts have been shared where educators are offering their technology skills to equip teachers in efforts to adjust to online learning. So, I pose the question again, What Is Your Tent Peg? What activities come so natural to you that you don’t really give them much thought? How will God use your Mundane and Monotonous to bring light into this world?

Please feel free to share in the comments below ways you have witnessed God using someone’s everyday skills to meet the needs of others.  

References:

Erlingsson, J. (2016). Becoming his: Finding your place as a daughter of God. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers.  

Ortberg, J. (2018, June 24). Menlo Church. “Made Perfect in Weakness: Deborah.” [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from https://menlo.church/menlopark/series/made-perfect-in-weakness