The Lord Wants Us Anyway

We might assume that when Jesus chose His twelve Apostles, He selected out of the whole Earth the very best twelve people that He could find. In all of the ways that matter, He did just that. However, from a certain point of view, not everyone He picked seems like a winner. Judas sold Him out. Thomas doubted the Lord's resurrection so strongly that the thing for which we know Him most is that He is doubting Thomas. Peter denied that He even knew Jesus, cut off a man's ear and on one occasion was called Satan by his Master. Before he followed Jesus, Matthew was a publican, one of the most despised and hated professions of his day. James and John both asked Jesus to rain down fire to destroy an entire village. The Lord wanted these men with all of these men anyway, despite all of their flaws and sketchy pasts and poor decisions and their tendency to let fear and anger override their faith and better judgment. We may be holding back from serving the Lord with our full heart because we are deceived by the false notion that just because we are not perfect we will somehow sully or derail the Lord's work. Christ knows us. He knows our pasts, our weaknesses, our flaws, our fears and our doubts. He wants us anyway. He sees our heart. He sees all of the good that we can do if we learn to embrace the idea that we can serve and magnify our callings and make positive changes in ourselves and in the world around us even as we continue to be flawed and inspect disciples of Jesus Christ. Peter may have given into fear and denied He knew Jesus to some low level servant in a back alley, but he would go on to declare His relationship with Jesus boldly before the full Sanhedrin, even as they threatened to take away his life or liberty. All of the Apostles helped to build a foundation for the Christian Church that has lasted for more than two thousand years and has spread across the globe. They did this even though they were flawed and imperfect. I know that God has a work for each of us to do, and He needs and He wants us to do it even though we are weak and flawed and imperfect. I know that whoever we have been and whatever we have done, the Lord wants us anyway.