built with rejects

There is a bit I really like in Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller where he talks about the significance of who Jesus chose to be his apostles. I kind of thought he was just walking along the beach and saw some people out in a boat and thought they look good, yelled out "Come follow me" and they did. I always thought that was kind of weird. If someone walked into my office today and said "Follow me and I will make you a fisher of men." I probably would have told him to wait in the lobby, and then snuck out a side door.

In the book, Miller is talking about how Jesus had been teaching in the synagogue and the people in his town knew at least who he was. He also talked about how people became rabbis in this culture. All Jewish boys went to school, after a certain point they were evaluated, the best continued school, the others went to learn their father's craft. Those that stayed in school were evaluated again later and the best of the best got to be apprentice's of rabbis. The others went out and learned their father's crafts.

Here is why I find this significant, Jesus could have gone after the best and the brightest students to follow him, but he didn't. He asked those out learning their father's crafts to follow him. The ones the Jewish rabbi's had deemed unworthy. All throughout the Bible God uses rejects, ill-equipped people to do His work. I love that about Him. It gives people like me hope that I can make a difference.