Chosen

 I was moved by a story I once heard evangelist James Robison tell. Robison was born as a product of rape. His mother had many severe emotional problems and was an inconsistent part of his life. Through his childhood, he moved from place to place, never having real roots anywhere. He said one of the most painful memories of that time was playing with other children, especially when choosing teams for games. Though a good athlete, he was always "the stranger," and always the last one picked. He developed a deep sense of inferiority that remained until Christ entered into his life. He said that the sense he had when he came to Christ was that he heard the Lord saying to him, "I pick you." Rejected throughout his young life, he had been found, received, and loved by the One who knew him before the foundation of the world. With the Father, no one is ever the last one picked.

I don't think we struggle with anything more than we do our own self-image. We're born into a world that is eager to reject, shun, and forget us. To some degree, we all feel as if we're at some point, "the last one picked." Many who seem to have everything going for them would very likely confess in the deepest part of their being just how inadequate and lacking they really feel. Shame has a stranglehold on so many lives. So many things about ourselves we just can't accept, and we're sure no one else will either. Our sorrow over this can be so intense that we can't even speak it, not even to Him. But He knows. And He comes. And He chooses us. Just as we are. Others may not like what they see, but they make their observations based on severely limited information. They don't know who we are. He does. He made us, and nothing anyone says or does, or what we have done alters His view in any way. His Word says we are "fearfully and wonderfully made," and He is expert in bringing out just how wonderfully made we are through His work in us.

I discovered this for the first time at the end of my first year at Bible College in Colorado. In my short time there I had made some of the deepest and most rewarding friendships I had ever known. Now, those that I'd grown closest to, made the deepest bonds with, were leaving, taking up assignments in places far from where I was. I felt very alone and forgotten. I ended up in the parking lot of the Bible College. In those days, the college stood on a hill surrounded by a vast prairie. I felt empty and wondered where He was in all this. It began to rain, and I I remember thinking, "What's next, a tornado?" What was next was the sudden emergence of....the sun....and a rainbow. I had the overwhelming sense that He knew right where I was, and the rainbow, as it was for Noah, was a kind of covenant promise that our walk together had miles and years to go, and He would be with me in all of it. I've never forgotten that rainbow, and it reminds me that He's chosen me, is with me....and that He loves me, regardless of what others say, do, or think...or if they leave. He picked me and He picks you. In Him there is no condemnation or shame. It may be raining in your life today, even 40 days worth. Look up! For there WILL be a rainbow. He's not forgotten you and He knows right where you are. He chooses you. Now...choose Him.

Blessings,

Pastor O