Last Friday night, Clint Brown was in London at the East Pittsburgh Pentecostal Church. When a friend invited me to go along, I was glad for the invitation. Clint Brown’s praise and worship music is something that most of us have heard in church or on the radio. So far in his career, he’s been at the top of gospel and country music charts. His songs of praise have been translated into 37 languages.

Like most successful people, he had an air of confidence about him, but probably not for the reason that most people would think.

Clint Brown is a very ordinary man. He is an ordinary looking man. If a person passed him on a crowded street and wasn’t expecting to see him there, they would probably not notice him at all. He would never stick out as someone rich and famous. Even though he lives in a mansion, drives a Mercedes, pastors a 5,800-member church in Orlando and is a regular on TBN, there is nothing about his person that would make him stand out in a crowd.

When he opens his mouth to sing or to preach it is a whole different story. The man has talent and passion. He has humor, wisdom and insights of faith based on personal experiences.

Sometimes as an outsider looking in on someone else’s life, it seems like they have everything together, and all things under control. Looking at a celebrity’s life through the eyes of the media, where they are featured time and time again, often makes it look like they have everything — money, fame, big houses, fine cars and glamorous people following them around. Everything seems to go their way.

Life isn’t like that, though. Not in the real world. Even the rich and famous have heartaches. Their loved ones get sick. Friends die. Marriages break apart. People tell sensational lies about them because the lies are more interesting than their day to day existence. They make money, spend money and lose money.

I have read it before from an old Chinese proverb, but Clint Brown quoted parts of it, “Money can buy you a house, but it will never make a home. Money can buy medicine, but it can not buy you health. Money can buy a bed, but not sleep. Money can buy a wedding ring, but not love…” I felt pretty sure that he knew what he was talking about. When he gave the testimony of his life, it was peppered with heartache and disappointments.

But Clint Brown is a survivor. His trust is in God, and God has blessed him abundantly. He relayed a story of one dark period in his life when he called Rev. E.B. White and told him what all was going wrong in his world. The good reverend let him pour it all out. Clint told him he was in the midnight of his life. When Rev. White had listened patiently to all his sorrows, it wasn’t sympathy he offered, but rather, wisdom.

“If this is your midnight, it only lasts for 60 seconds. Midnight is only 60 seconds long. So you get up and start praising God. When those 60 seconds have passed, it is morning. You are headed toward the dawn.”

Clint Brown is where he is because he has put his trust and his talent in God’s hands. He is an ordinary man in the hands of an extraordinary God. That ought to be an encouragement to all of us.

Have you ever felt unworthy to bring yourself to God? Have you ever felt like you had nothing to offer God? Have you ever felt like you were so small and insignificant that you couldn’t imagine God taking note of your miserable life or your needs as a human being?

The Bible says that God uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. That definitely qualifies me. I believe God often uses the broken, the unworthy, the small, the insignificant, the hopeless and the foolish because these are the people who acknowledge their own shortcomings and give God the glory for what He brings into their lives.

I’ve been through some things in my life that have made me feel like maybe I was too wounded and broken to be of any use to God. But the greatest gift we can give Him, the most that any person has to offer God is when we give Him our heart; when we say to Him, “I am nothing, I have nothing to offer God but my heart, my life. Take them and do with me as you will.”

That is the greatest gift we can ever give Him. Once we’ve done that and let God take control of our lives, He can take us in directions that we never ever expected. I’m convinced that if God wanted me sitting on the throne of England, Camilla might as well start packing her bags.

Maybe I am destined to be an ordinary person all of my life. Even if that is as good as it gets for me, I rest assured that I am in the hands of an extraordinary God.