Tuesday Re-mix:
What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?
You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. Psalm 8:4-5
Back in 1985, when I came out of law school and started work as a very wet-behind-the-ears lawyer, I expected to be stuck in the back of a law library for at least a year or two before I would be entrusted with anything which actually required much judgment on my part. I fully expected I would be researching and reading and gathering documents and other such tasks which were reasonably “safe” for a baby lawyer to handle. Imagine my surprise, then, in my FIRST WEEK ON THE JOB, when one partner handed me a file to take before a jury in just 3 short months and another partner handed me an appellate brief to prepare and argue before the Texas Court of Appeals in just 6 short months. I was scared to death! I was in pretty far over my head. I would not have done it that way. I thought to myself…they must really trust me!
I say it often about God and the church…I would not have done it this way. If I were God, I would not have chosen this strategy to reach this lost and broken world. To be blunt, I would never have entrusted my name and my reputation into the hands of a bunch of broken, flawed people like you and me. What an enormous risk!
In my work as a peacemaker in the church, I get the privilege of seeing the church often at its very worst behavior. I am reminded over and over again just how flawed we are…how very capable we are of letting emotions get the best of us and of “losing it” in front of a watching world. We certainly have not “earned” God’s trust in any way, shape or form. And yet, God’s plan from the very beginning was to use us, with all our flaws, to be His spokespersons to the world. Having created us “a little lower than the angels”, He knows our potential…better than we know ourselves. He has crowned his church with honor and glory…made us His bride.
Do you feel like we’re in way over our heads? I do! All the time! What a responsibility He has given us to carry His name through this world…to wear that name proudly, for all the world to see and to associate us with Him and Him with us. What an awesome and amazing privilege and honor!
I would not have done it this way. I would not have crowned us with anything but a good, strong thump on the back of the head! But He crowned us with honor and glory. And He still does. He must really trust us!