Jesus Picks His Team

So good to be back!

It was really wonderful to be back at campaigners this morning. Its always nice having a break, but coming back is so good. This morning was a blast. It was fun hearing about everyone's Christmas break as we ate doughnuts before getting things started. It sounded like everyone had a pretty great time over the break.

Leap frog!

Grant was the mastermind behind the game today. We gave everyone name tags with numbers on them, and then lined up around the perimeter of a square. Grant would then call out certain numbers and have them do different things. Some of the highlights were when he had four numbers make a human chair and then another number come and sit on it, or when he had 5 numbers run to the middle and play a round of leap frog.

Maddie and a chair of boys.

It was fun and the game gave everyone a chance to talk with kids that might not be in their direct circle of friends, or even in their grade. Sometimes it can be a challenge getting kids to mingle outside of their group of friends, so games like this are great.

Dylan came ready for his football game.

After the game we started our new rhythm for the rest of this school year. We will be taking the rest of this year to go through the Gospel of Mark. It is one of the four Gospels, and tells the story of Jesus' ministry while he was flesh and blood on earth. It is a really great book that is fast paced and written to show that Jesus came to save the world in a very unexpected way.

Today we looked at Mark 1:16-20. The story of Jesus gathering his first disciples.

Jesus did not do his work alone. He first gathered a team around him, and then set out to change the world forever. In Mark, he doesn't do much of anything before he gets his team together, and the people he picks and the way they respond is pretty shocking.

As most of you parents might know, Ladera Ranch Middle school is in the middle of a fierce flag football tournament. Kids were able to pick teams and a bracket was put together. After weeks of games, there will be one team crowned champions. When I asked the kids how they picked their teams, almost all of them said they picked people they thought would give them the best chance of winning... or they just picked their bet friends. This is pretty much the best way to gather a team. Pick the best people. Common sense right, you want to win or do something well, you get the people around you that give you the best shot.

Jesus didn't seem to get this memo... and, honestly, throughout the Bible, God didn't seem to understand this concept either. He constantly picked people that seemed unqualified for what he wanted them to do. Moses, the person God chose to lead a whole nation out of slavery seemed afraid to do it, and tried hard to get out of it. Gideon, someone God chose to fight a nation that was oppressing Israel also tried to get out of it, and didn't trust God at all. David, the guy who would be remembered as the best king of Israel was tiny, and just a boy when God chose him, and then later in life, when he was king, did some pretty terrible things (sleep with another man's wife and then have that man killed).

The Bible doesn't have many stories of heroes without major flaws.

Jesus followed this pattern. The people he chose were not the best and brightest up and coming religious leaders of his time. They weren't the bravest, most passionate men of God. The first four people Jesus chose to be with him in his plan to change the world were... fishermen. Normal fishermen. Mark doesn't give us any sort of details to suggest that there was anything special about these guys. Jesus was walking by the sea, saw a couple guys fishing, asked them to follow him, and they did. Then, a few minutes later, on the same walk, he saw a couple other guys mending nets with their father and other employees, he asked them to follow him, and they did as well.

Four normal guys, chosen to be a part of the most powerful and famous story ever. Four normal guys chosen to change the entire world.

Often it can be easy to think that we must be or do something special to be valuable. I would say that this is true to a point. In our society, and in the job market you must stand out or you will get overlooked, but this isn't the way God works. God doesn't ask us to be anything special, he just asks us to follow him, to be a part of his family, his team of people set out to rescue the world. Its hard to imagine that the qualifications to be a part of God's team are that we be ourselves and follow Jesus, but that is it. We don't have to have it all together, we don't even have to be a "good person" in order for Jesus to ask us to follow. These guys were fishermen, later Jesus would ask a tax collector (they were loved and respected about as much as modern day drug dealers) to be one of his disciples... the qualification was saying "yes." Its the same today.

Jesus wants us to join his family, his team. He has something special planned for us, something that we get to be a part of because we are the person he picked to do it. We are all unique, even if we try not to be, and God can do some really amazing things when a person trusts him. We don't have to change who we are, we don't have to try to be like that "super holy man or woman" we know. We just have to be ourselves, and trust God.

For a middle school kid this can be incredibly good news. Their world is a messy world of uncertainty. They are constantly told, either directly or indirectly, that they must be something different in order to be loved. They need to be better students, athletes, friends, or people... they need to be cooler, have better clothes, look like the cool kids, talk a certain way... they must be anything but themselves in order to succeed. To hear and then see that Jesus made them they way they are on purpose, and that they are being invited to be a part of his team as they are is awesome... honestly, sometimes I still have a hard time believing it for myself. To be fully accepted and fully loved as we are, not as we think we should be is incredible... and its the truth concerning our relationship with God. He knows us completely and he loves us completely, as we are right now, warts and all.

So, if you want to talk to your child about WyldLife today, ask them what kind of people Jesus picked to be on his team, and then ask them what was so surprising about this. Then ask them if they think Jesus wants them on his team, and why or why not. Its pretty incredible what Jesus did with a group of normal guys that really didn't understand anything until after Jesus died and rose back to life... its crazy to think what Jesus can do with you and I, all that is required is that we say yes, and follow him.

Small group time is always my favorite.