Smart People

I’ve heard multiple sermons about Jesus choosing his disciples.  He overlooked those bursting with potential.  He bypassed those brimming with knowledge.  He selected instead the last, the least, and the leftovers.

A tax collector.  A zealot.  Some fishermen.

This is encouraging since we’re surrounded by a system that measures people almost exclusively based on gifts and poise and accomplishments and mental prowess.  Jesus saw through the clutter on the surface and examined the heart; finding the promise he was looking for on the inside rather than the outside.

Which means you don’t have to have a graduate degree, be a gifted communicator, or possess the finest entrepreneurial skills to follow Jesus.

But what if you do have a graduate degree?  What if you are a stellar speaker?  What if everything you touch turns to gold?  What if you can start a business with the ease with which some people start a pot of coffee?  What if you’re a science whiz, a prolific writer, a rising star, a seismically talented individual?

What if you’re the thirteenth disciple?

You remember him, right?  Paul wasn’t a fisherman.  He wasn’t a tax collector.  He wasn’t at the bottom of the heap or the middle of his class.  Paul was an intellectual.  A Pharisee of the Pharisees.  Raised at the feet of one of the most venerated religious instructors of his era.  A mind-numbingly intelligent human being; intrepid and confident. 

Then he met Jesus and became vanilla, right?  Isn’t that what he says? “…everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ” (Philippians 3:8 – MSG).

Yet the reality argues differently.  By the time Paul was a decade or two into his ministry, he’d reached into a significant number of major cities on his continent for Christ.  He testified before kings, wrote half the New Testament, and mentored some of the most outstanding leaders the church would know.  He stood up to a religious sect that tried to hijack Christianity – and shut them down.  He stuck his finger in the chest of Peter, the guy Jesus gave the keys of the kingdom to, and told him to back off so the message could move forward.

He launched new churches with the ease with which most people vacuum their SUV or throw in a load of laundry.

Paul might have felt like he’d thrown it all away to follow Jesus, but Jesus didn’t feel that way.  Jesus didn’t rob Paul of his gifts.  He just redirected them.

If you own the company you work for, know how to write books, negotiate deals, create strategies, or diagram the universe, following Jesus means dumping all of that in the trash.  Switching the source of your confidence.  But chances are good Jesus will dig it out, dust it off, and give it back to you.  To use for his glory instead of your own.

Because the gospel is for everyone.  Even smart people.

Comments

[robinsteele]

Good stuff

[Mark Johnston]

Thanks Robin - hope you're well.

[Matthew Labrador]

Good to know, PM. :)

[Mark Johnston]

Matt, you're one of the smartest people I know. Keep offering your gifts to God and people!