Jesus Calls the Not-Good-Enoughs

Ever feel unworthy, tossed aside, invisible, or not good enough? There’s some good news for you today.

“Jesus calls the not good enoughs.”

We’re reading Velvet Elvis as a staff team for the church I work at and I’m just non-stop falling more in love with this Jesus.  He flips the mold every time and reminds us that the ways of the world are a little backwards.

He leaves the ninety-nine behind to tend to the one wayward sheep.

He chooses the younger son when we would have picked the oldest.

I am so thankful he was different.  I am so grateful that he was an outcast leader of his time in the way he looked at people.  He chose the people that didn’t make the cut, and it’s why I can believe that he has also chosen me.  I believe he has chosen you too, follow along with me, there’s someone who needs this word today…

Jesus lived in a time period where the smartest Torah teachers and scripture believers only wanted an apprentice that was the best of the best in terms of memorization and their understanding of scripture.  The students who were good under pressure at finding the right scripture verse to quote in any circumstance, those were the elect few that were chosen to be a disciple. It was a privilege and prestigious honor to be chosen by a leader who looks at you and says “come follow me”.

All of Jesus’ peers (is that even a thing to be a peer to Jesus?) must be walking around the synagogue in hopes of finding their elite select apprentices, but not Jesus.  Jesus finds his chosen out by the sea, from the miss the mark fishermen that were most likely synagogue drop-outs.  These men are doing the “skill” they have been told will be their lifelong calling, and Jesus walks up to them and gives them a new name…gives me chills.

Can you just imagine the feeling those men received to be picked, to be chosen, and to be seen as having potential by a leader they respected and looked up to?  That moment of “me, are you sure you’re talking about me?”.

I think we’re all craving the words those fishermen received that day.  We all long to hear someone believe in our potential.  To see greatness in us, even in the mundane.  We want to be noticed, we want to be acknowledged, and more than anything, we want to be seen.  We all seem to want the experience of living out our everyday lives casting out our daily version of fishing our nets and then get interrupted by someone we respect saying that they see something in us we are struggling to see in ourselves.

We are all striving to be chosen.  To be told we are chosen.  To be picked for the team.

This is your day.  This is your moment.  This is your calling.  And this is your conviction.

You have been called friend. You have been pulled aside and you have been declared as chosen, ransomed, and redeemed.

The words “Come, follow me” have been spoken over your life and now is the time for you to drop your nets, pull out a notepad and pen and hinge on every word that is said.

Jesus sees what you are struggling to see right now, and he validates the potential in you that your boss didn’t mention at your quarterly review.

Jesus sees the bravery and strength that you wish your parents would notice.

Jesus doesn’t run from your mess like your friends did, He sees greatness in you overcoming your surroundings.

He sees you and he walks alongside you.

Walk today like you have been chosen.  Make decisions today like you have been hand-picked as a disciple.  And then live with SO much abundant hope that you can’t help but walk around and remind the fishermen in your life that they have been chosen as well.

#chosen

#befree

#come

#wordsfromafriend

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