Francois Mauriac wrote in his life of Jesus: “It is baffling to record that, for a period of thirty years, the Son of Man did not appear to be anything other than a man. Those who lived with him thought they knew him. He fixed their tables and chairs. They ate and drank with his extended family. When he stepped outside the role they had fixed for him, they put him down as just a workman.”

this was in my daily reading recently, from sacred space.

I was reading the carton of my innocent smoothie when I came across this interesting fact – that grapevines strangle or suffocate all other plants around them. I wonder was Jesus aware of this when he spoke about being the vine and us his branches?

Adds a new aspect to the metaphor…?

I was contemplating what areas of service I would like to get involved in at church, trying to think what I would be best at or most gifted in, when this thought struck me.

As Christians, churches and societies we usually choose our leaders based on the potential they show, the obvious giftings they possess and their willingness to serve. Fairly similar, in fact, to Sir Alan Sugar’s audition process in “The Apprentice”. How different from God’s method of selecting leaders. He seems to choose those with little or no obvious gifting, who don’t show apparent leadership skills and who really don’t want to be used, even those stuck in the grip of sin. Think of Moses protesting, Jonah running, Gideon hiding, David fornicating, Rahab prostituting. Not the usual leadership candidates, especially in church! It seems He selects those with nothing to give, as they are the ones who will entirely depend on Him.

How different from our ideas of leaders. From what I see, God cares much less about “talented individuals” and “gifted leaders” than we would like to think. He seems to spend much more time with, and give his attention to the drunks, the whores, the fearful, the hurting, dirty and dying. Perhaps that’s where our focus should be?