The New Way

I was accepted as a Summer Missionary one summer while I was in college.  I was assigned a teammate that I had never met.  Her name was Judy.  Our assignment was to live (camp) in a State Park (Devil's Den) in Northwest Arkansas, conduct day-camps based on Vacation Bible School material for children, play volleyball with the youth, and be available to talk about Jesus and minister however we could to our fellow campers.  On weekends we would visit churches in the area to share special music and talk about our work.   As we prepared for our first weekend, Judy very firmly told me that she would be doing all the music because she was the musician.  I could do the talking. 

I had a hard time agreeing to the plan – because I loved to sing and play the piano, too.   I deeply resented her declaring herself “the” musician.   What did that make me?  A “not-musician”!  

You see, what I'm trying to say is that I really didn't know Judy very well at all and I had never heard her sing, but what she said, made me feel inferior and angry.   When I heard her sing, she was indeed, very good – but that's not my point.  My point is that when we hear other people claim a lofty title, we often resent it.

Now, Jesus had grown up in the same community as these people.  He had been sinless, so there was nothing they could say “bad” about him.  It's just that His claims made them feel left out, inferior or “less-than”.

We'll continue this study tomorrow.

In His service, dale