Chosen

John Ortberg writes, “To be loved means to be chosen. The sense of being chosen is one of the very best gifts love bestows on the beloved... On the other hand, there is no pain quite like the pain of not being chosen.” I understand that last part – I have the emotional scars to show for it. I still remember the fourth grade experience of a bunch of kids playing a game. Two boys claimed the right to choose teams, and they went back and forth, “I want Jim.” “I want Doug.” “I want Mike.” On and on the choosing went.

The dread of that moment is still with me, etched in my psyche. I have to be honest, I was never very good at sports of any kind. Too clumsy, awkward, two left feet, not the right genes – I don’t know, I just know that when God gave out talents in the athletic arena, He gave me zero talents. You can guess what happened that day – down to the last two, and then one – the team leader griped, “Oh, I’ll take Johnston if I have to.”

A childhood experience, of course. Builds character. Makes you search for what you are good at. Creates strength. You’ll be good at something. I heard all of those things and said them and more to myself. But it took a long time for me to find out what I was good at, and those many experiences of being picked last created a good bit of self-doubt.

I projected much of this on God. I didn’t blame Him for my lack of athletic prowess, but I was quite sure that if He began dividing folks up that I would be at the tail end, not completely worthless but not much better – “Oh, I’ll take Johnston if I have to.” I tried to believe God loved me, but frankly, I had a hard time believing that.

I was in college when the message got through my dense skull. I still remember Bill and Ruth Martin encouraging me to change John 3:16 from “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” to “For God so loved Bob.” I struggled to believe that – and then began to read the New Testament with new eyes, recognizing that God truly did love me, not because I was valuable to His team or exceptional in skills, but because I was valued by Him. He loved me because He loved me – amazing! I experienced this overwhelming sense of being chosen – of being wanted by God. I looked at what Jesus did with new eyes – it was as if God said, “Bob, I did all of this for you.”

Chosen – it really is a wonderful thing. Marriage at its best conveys much of that, a person picking us out, knowing us warts and all, and they say, “I choose you.” It truly is a tremendous gift – but no one outdoes God. I love the way Paul begins Colossians 3:12, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved...” The holy part is what God does, not what I do. And the chosen part, the loved part, that is God’s as well.

Colossians 3:12 and the verses that follow tell us the kind of spiritual clothes our Lord wants us to wear – things like compassion and kindness and humility and patience – it is a fairly complete list, I hope you will look at it. But this isn’t a list of necessary characteristics to earn God’s love – these are things we strive to do simply because we are loved. Because we are chosen. Because one day God said, “Oh, I’d love to take Johnston!” Thank You Lord!