High Achievers and God

<disclaimer>: I do not know God's mind. These comments are my own and are meant to stimulate thoughtful reflection.</disclaimer>

God's will is that all people are saved. He wants everyone to know the truth. What is the best way to accomplish that goal? If you were going to build a core team of people to go all over the world, and communicate a message that was meant to fundamentally change people's hearts and minds, who would you recruit. Most people would look for the best communicators and motivators they could find.

That was not what Jesus did. He gathered together 12 mostly uneducated men who did not seem to have the high performance qualities we look for today. They were self-centered--arguing about which of them was the greatest. They were arrogant--thinking they could do the miracles Jesus did. They were not focused--sleeping when they should have been helping Jesus prepare for the biggest challenge any human would ever face. When things got really bad, they all ran away, abandoning their mission at a critical time. Worst of all, despite being around Jesus almost every day for three years, they did not understand his mission. On the day Jesus went back to heaven, they asked Jesus if he was going to restore His kingdom, meaning, was it time to take down the Romans. Doh! Messiah. Lamb of God. Sacrifice. Resurrection. Get with the program.

Despite all of this, these guys were Jesus ministry team. They would have been fired at modern companies, but Jesus kept them. They went on to be wildly successful. One rally they held converted about three thousand people in one day. They went all around their area recruiting new members. They even witnessed to foreign dignitaries. Their organization got so big they had to delegate responsibilities. They held a convention and drafted a belief statement.

How did these under achievers manage to accomplish all that they did? Overnight, they went from slackers to charismatic leaders. The answer is simple: Pentecost. After the Holy Spirit came on the disciples, they were changed. God did not abandon them to their ministry, He took it over. God did not hope that these guys would get it right, He actively worked with them to accomplish what He wanted. God turned the disciples into apostles. The disciples can take no credit for what they did. They were simply willing workers who emptied themselves to let God work through them.

So, if we need people to help with God's work today, what kind of people do we look for? High Achievers? People with a track record of accomplishments? Good-looking, charismatic folks? Team leaders? Maybe. Those are all good qualities to have. But maybe the best quality is to have a heart for God. The best candidates for working in God's kingdom may be those who have a passion for serving Him. Those people may not have the outward qualities of high achievers, but they have Jesus working inside of them. How can they fail to accomplish God's will and be successful in God's sight if God is with them? Two thousand years ago, God used a bunch of misfits to change the world. He can still do that today.

<aside>The other side of this coin is that leaders in God's kingdom need to look to God for a vision of the future. This may mean letting things go in a direction they did not originally intend. More on that in a different post. </aside>