The Unlikely
Devotional 3 October 3 2018
The past few years we have seen some pretty big names in the Christian world take some hard falls. And each of those falls hurts, not just that person, or their church or ministry, but all of us in the Body. Pastors, ministry leaders, musicians, educational leaders, and the bigger the name the bigger the hit.
Lately there have been some great articles on how to avoid the big falls. Accountability, training, institutional changes. All very helpful. However I think we have a more fundamental issue that we need to deal with. It’s around the question of why we put people in these high places in the first place.
Often I can’t seem to distinguish christian culture from the culture of the world. The big name pastors seem to exhibit the same traits that secular leaders do. Charisma, power, attraction. We bring in Christian musicians and celebrate in mostly the same way we do secular artists. We wear t-shirts with the names of bands, churches, rip off from secular logos. The largest and fastest growing churches almost always are based upon attractive models.
What’s the deal with that? Should we then be surprised if our superstars then fall in the same way our secular leaders fall?
Now I am not saying that we shouldn’t have people with talents use those talents, but should we hold them in such high esteem?
Well, if we turn to the Scriptures, we seem to find some answers (what a surprise!) How often foes God tell us about the least being those who we should honor? I seem to recall something about giving the seat of honor to the person we usually overlook. And doesn’t Paul’s letter to the Corinthians mention those who we consider low, having special honor?
I love reading the stories of scripture and imagining what it would be like to be that character. The women at the well, what must if have meant to have the Savior of the Universe come and talk to me????? Or climbing a tree to get a look at this man creating a stir, only to have him stop and call me down to talk. What was it like to welcome the son of god into your home when a so called Church leader wouldn’t be seen dead talking to you?
I think we often forget the real people in scripture. Some of this has to do with the way we have put pictures in our churches of these sweet looking men and women, as though that’s how they really looked. Most days I drive past women engaged in prostitution in my community, and they don’t look like the paintings we have of sweet Mary Magdalene. So many of the people God chose weren’t just ordinary, they were messy, dirty, broken, insignificant in their social circles. Like to call them the Unlikely.
For the past 25 years I’ve had the privilege of living and working with the Unlikely. We guess I found a home amongst them because that’s who I am. And at Cairn, that’s a group that costumes to bless me.
In the coming year I hope to write some of the stories of the Unlikely. They are often the B or C students. The ones who annoy you in class. Late with their homework. More likely to be seen climbing on a roof than studying in a library (yes, we all saw you). But if you begin to watch closely, if you pray that God gives you His eyes, if you don’t give up on them and allow them the room to grow, you start to see the Unlikely begin to make their impact. Just like what happens so often in scripture.
Cairn has some outstanding students who thrive academically. We help talent become refined and effective. But from my view, what we also do exceptionally well, is find a place for the Unlikely to begin to change the world. I think that doesn’t happen so much in the classroom as it does in the cafeteria, on a walk across the footpath, over dinner in our homes. Through a response to a journal or a letter or a text.
So, call me biased. I love the idea of reading Scripture from below, from the point of view of the last the least and the lost. And from that point of view, we should put our hope in the Unlikely, not the super stars. Maybe you are more like me than those super stars anyway. Ordinary people with the chance to be part of extraordinary things, given the opportunity to serve the most High God, regardless of our lack of talent, charisma or status in society.
So join me as I tell the stories of the Unlikely people doing Unlikely things in Unlikely places.
– By Dr. Coz Crosscombe
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