Pick me, pick me . . .

Ever been the last one picked for the schoolyard team? Or the person on the office most often rejected for a raise? Or the first one laid off in a recession? Ever say “pick me, pick me” during a lottery draw or an award ceremony?

The person with power is one who can CHOOSE. In the Bible, this word usually means “to select for one’s own reasons or purposes from a number of alternatives.” The mystery is no one really has figured out why God selects some and not others. It isn’t up to us — we all fall short and no one is righteous. Besides that, our sin keeps us from choosing God. So why does He bother with choosing us? There are only clues, no solid answers.

God chooses people who will obey Him. Even this is a mystery for those who follow the Lord know that our ability to obey is a gift from Him. Without His grace, no one would seek Him (see Romans 3:10ff). That said, when He visited Abraham concerning the fate of Sodom, He asked:

“Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” (Genesis 18:17–19)

The generations after this man of faith were told why God choose them. He said it was because He loved them and intended to keep His promise of deliverance to them:

“For you are a people holy (set apart) to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 7:6–8)

Within that group of people, God assigned priests (see Deuteronomy 21:5) and leaders (see 1 Samuel 16:10-13 and 1 Chronicles 28:4-5) as well as the city where He would be worshiped (see 2 Chronicles 6:5-6).

The plan of God goes according to His choices yet the reason for them is always vague. In the NT, He says, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14)

He also makes it clear that our choice to follow Him is based on His choice of us. “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” (John 15:16)

That choice has ramifications: “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19) perhaps because He picks people we would not necessarily choose. Instead, He is not interested in our standards:

“Consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Corinthians 1:26–29)

We tend to go for ‘bigger, better, more’ but a worldly value system does not match God’s choices. He even says what we value is an abomination to Him. For that reason, He “arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose” rather than let us raise up our own ideas of who does what in His kingdom.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. For all this, I’m told to seek His will and not lean on my own understanding. I’m also to act like someone who is chosen, holy and beloved. In Colossians 3:12–17, He spells it out saying I’m to be compassionate, kind, humble, meek, and patient, bearing with others and forgiving others as the Lord has forgiven me. I’m to love people — the glue that binds us together in perfect harmony. I’m also to let the peace of Christ rule my heart, be thankful, richly full of God’s Word and teaching and admonishing wisely and with songs in my heart — all words and deeds done in His name, thankful that He choose me yet not having a clue why He did it!