“Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times? Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you seven times but seventy times seven.’ ” Matthew 18:21–22 (NRSV)
Christians can be a topsy-turvy bunch. Sometimes we do things that the world has a hard time understanding. We do a lot of things others consider backward. When someone hurts us, we turn the other cheek, leaving ourselves vulnerable to even more hurt. We have to die to ourselves in order to live eternally. If someone needs our coat, we give him our shirt as well.
Unlikely people take leadership roles in God’s kingdom, like Moses, who stuttered. We look back to what Jesus said and did in the past to know our own futures. God chooses us not because we are ready to serve. He takes the reluctant servant, equips them and makes them ready.
We are in this world but not of it—and Jesus gives us the strength to persist when we are backward in the world’s eyes.
Faith step: Do a backward thing today. Give more than you had planned to someone who needs it. Pay for a stranger’s groceries. Take the lead in something that frightens you just because you know God wants you to do it.
