Selected
“But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.”
- Peter
Do you remember that precious moment when you first knew? Maybe it was from that boy or that girl who responded in kind with the heart you had for them. Perhaps it was in that kind gesture of one of your parents that seemed way beyond their parenting requirement. Or possibly that coach or teacher who extraordinarily offered their interest and invested in you.
When did you first know that you were really loved?
For many of us, knowing we were loved involved being chosen, selected, or picked from other possible alternatives.
I knew it when the girl I loved said I was the one for her too (we just celebrated our 30th year as husband and wife).
I felt it when three great guys honored me as their fourth roommate (they changed my life through the thousands of hours we spent together over the 4 years we were roommates).
I sensed it when I was selected for a job that I desperately needed but thought I didn’t qualify for (that turned into a two-year odyssey to Chicago that altered the course of my career and my family’s life).
I knew it when a small group of men decided to band together with me to do life and ministry together (we are on our 12th year of ministry together with over 1,000 men having come through the retreats we lead).
I felt it immediately when an executive coach identified my purpose and calling in our first meeting (I decided in that moment to pursue a vocation journey that has turned into a decade of working with hundreds of leaders and organizations).
I feel it every week when other members of the tribe I am doing vocational life with continue to show up for the meetings we set and do the work we do together.
I am reminded by it every major holiday when my six children, their spouses, and now grandchildren choose to spend time with my wife and me.
And now, watching The Chosen series by Dallas Jenkins (available on Youtube, Chosen App, etc.) is helping me feel loved and chosen in a way I have never known before. We have all read the stories of Mary, Nicodemus, the woman at the well, and all those rascal disciples before.
But the way he depicts Jesus is changing my understanding of being loved and reminding me in new ways what being chosen by him really means. I see myself in the prostitute, the greedy tax collector, the prideful religious leadership, the oppressive rule of the Romans, the innocent children, and the disenfranchised Jew.
While I carry pieces of all of them, Jesus relentlessly pursues me just as he chases after all of them. Not to call them out or even identify the obvious flaws in their characters, but selecting each of them and loving the intended glory of their lives into existence.
Such mercy and kindness. Never shaming, never condemning.
He chooses. He pursues. He woos them from the life and identity they know towards the one intended.
I don’t have the capacity to pursue others in love until I fully live in the reality that I have already been chosen and loved first. I cannot lead with a whole heart. I cannot cultivate the best version of others. I cannot reach for the art of the possible while drawing in the reality of things as they are.
I have been chosen. I am loved. There is a better version of me emerging and it requires that I fight for the aspirational identity possible in everyone and everything.
Consider
When do you first remember being chosen?
Can you feel the weight of that even as you read this?
Are you operating out of the abundance that comes with that?
How is it requiring you to lead and love differently as a result?