This is My Brother, Daryl, and My Other Brother, Daryl

My dear friend, Clernise, grew up an orphan in Haiti, relying on the Lord, alone, for deliverance. She prayed often that she would meet an American man who loved the Lord, would come to love and marry her, and who would then take her to America.

When CeCe finally met my friend, Joe, she went back to her knees and prayed, “Oh, no, Lord. Not this man! He is so old and fat! I do not want this man. Are you sure he is the one?”

Joe had his reservations, too, about entering a cross-cultural relationship that promised to be complicated from the start but it didn’t take long for both of them to see the wisdom (and the joy) of God’s plan for their life together. They laugh now whenever CeCe tells that story – laughter that testifies to the transforming power of God who helps us see beyond the raw material He sends our way.

When King David was fleeing for his life from Saul, he escaped to the cave of Abdullum. David was an outlaw according to the visible leadership of the land but God sent men to support him. “David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there. All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him.” I Samuel 22:1-2

Sounds like the original inspiration for Robin Hood, doesn’t it?

Here is a man who was once an honored warrior in the king’s court, now building an army from men who were “in distress or in debt or discontented.” He goes from commanding warriors to commanding a motley band of outlaws with mixed motives.

I wonder how many pastors look out on a Sunday morning and think they’re looking at much the same crowd as gathered around David!

Just a few chapters earlier in David’s life, God spoke to the prophet Samuel, “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” I Samuel 16:7

We look at the outer person – his appearance, his situation, her history, her hairstyle, his poor grammar, her critical scowl. But God sees with vision that penetrates like sonar to map the floor of the human heart.

When we pray and ask Him to send help, we should than trust that He’ll respond. When help comes, we must be careful not to judge by appearance but, like my friend, CeCe, return to our knees for confirmation before we send that help packing.

When CeCe protested, God spoke quietly to her heart and responded that, in fact, this older, fatter man was the one He’d sent to love her. (more fit than fat now, by the way)

Just as I’m sure He assured Jesus that this following of men who usually didn’t trust Him for more than the length of a miracle and who argued amongst themselves about who was greatest, that these were the men to be entrusted with the gospel message upon His departure.

Just as many a pastor, after His first month in a new church, has hit the carpet asking, “Seriously, Lord? These people?”

Just as many a congregant has looked at their pastor and board of elders at a business meeting and prayed, “Seriously, Lord? These guys?”

Who we are on the outside does not factor into God’s willingness to choose us to take active roles in building His kingdom. His entire field of choice is comprised of sinners who fall short of His glory.

What does matter to Him is a person’s heart and what He looks for is to find that His Son has taken up residence there.

Are you looking at the team around you thinking, “Really, Lord? These people?”

Here’s what I recommend:

First, take a trip to the mirror and say clearly to the reflection you find there, “If He can build the kingdom with you, He can build it with anyone.”

Then, take a trip to the mirror of His word and seek Him in scripture and prayer.

Then, ask God for eyes that see others the way He sees them.

Then , look again at the people around you.

I don’t even know the people around you but I promise, if you could see them with God’s eyes, you would be amazed!

The power of God is so great that when He enters the heart of a shepherd boy or a thief, a politician or a preacher, a murderer or a mother, a king or a con, He transforms that heart and it becomes a vehicle of His grace and love in this world.