God’s unlikely heroes
1 Corinthians 1:28-29 “God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”
It is a major understatement to say that people today, especially in America, are obsessed with appearance and putting on a good front. We want to look good, sound good and be respected by others as good in what we do.
There are all sorts of stories out there about the “unlikely hero” – the one no one expected who came through and achieved something great. Yes, we often find ourselves cheering for “the little guy”, but if we are honest about it we’d rather not be that little guy.
If you look carefully at the Bible, it is, in a sense, one “little guy” or “unlikely hero” story after another. Think of stories like Noah and the ark, David and Goliath, Samson and there are many others. Many of those stories/heroes are listed in chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews.
Our Bible verses for this week clearly tell us that God is all about “unlikely heroes”. Paul reminds us that God does not always choose the candidate that everyone thinks is obvious. Paul tells us why God chooses the “lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not”. You have probably witnessed that when people choose the obvious candidate or the one who seems like they will do the best job that many of those people let their position and success go to their head and they think and act like they made everything happen by themselves – with their own wisdom, ingenuity and hard work.
As Christians we know that all our talent, all our blessings and any success or prosperity we have is purely a gift of God. How easily we are lured and dragged into the thinking of the world that we thrive on recognition and success and praise. Please don’t misunderstand that, we should and need to thank, praise and recognize people for what they do, but the ultimate glory belongs to God. Yes, we may cringe when we see athletes pointing heavenward after a touchdown, home run or making a big basket, but honestly none of us knows that perhaps their heart is in the right place.
Why does God humble the big guy and let the little guy succeed? “So that no one may boast before him.”. Remember that in previous devotions we have talked about how people are to see and hear God through us in our actions and words. How easily that is overshadowed when we think we’ve done it ourselves! How much easier it is to give God the glory when we realize that there is no way we could do it ourselves and we see how God enabled to do something as his instrument for his glory.