the power of being picked First

By Joel Bates

Standing in a sea of humanity with flashing stage lights illuminating the night, I settled into the music, letting the heavy soundwaves flow over and through me.  This was not on my usual foray off the beaten path, not my comfort zone, and definitely not a place I would normally have chosen to be.  I was in Chicago at a rock concert!  While the band is a favorite of mine, the pyrotechnics and special affects unrivaled in cinematography and the instrumental and vocal overtures stunning, none of those elements were enough to draw me to this location, this event.
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Taking a moment to retreat internally from the bedlam of the show and observe, I looked over the largest crowd I’d ever been part of as tens of thousands of heads bobbed to the beat.  I noticed how nearly everyone was wearing band merchandise and sported face paint or symbolic markings on their clothes to represent their allegiance to the celebrities on stage.  Everyone was singing boisterously so that I couldn’t hear the lead singer—singing in a way that seemed to emanate worship of a sort to the man behind the mic.  But I was different from them.  I wasn’t here first and foremost for the band.  Sure, I was a fan, and certainly, I wanted to be in the presence of greatness, but the reason I was there in that throng was because of the beautiful young brunette standing to my left.  

I couldn’t help but gaze at this pretty woman next to me and grin as I watched her sway to the music and sing out the choruses to the popular songs.  She wasn’t clad in band garb, but she seemed to be a true fan.  I liked that she was an aficionado like me, sensible and demonstrative but not a worshipper.  I knew most of the lyrics as did she, and as we sang she gave me a kind smile.  Somewhere amid the melodies, I messed up one of the words a little too loudly.  She heard the mistake and giggled under the din of the crowd.  It was dark enough in the concert hall so she couldn’t see my face redden with embarrassment, but there was no mistaking her tone when she chided me, “Maybe you should sing a little quieter next time, Dad!” 

Reflecting on that recent concert experience, I came to the realization that there was only one reason I would drive the 18-hour round trip, pay for an absurdly expensive ticket, endure two hours of sitting in post-concert traffic, and get less than a collective four hours of sleep during the whole ordeal.  I did it because I was chosen.  

​Rewind a few weeks prior to the concert and listen in on a phone call.  My second daughter, Clare, who recently left our nest and moved out of state called.  “Dad!” she said with breathless excitement.  “Our favorite band is on tour, and of everybody I could go with, you’re my first choice.  So, you wanna do this?” 

At that moment, I didn’t care how expensive it was, how far it was, how loud it would be, or how long it would take.  When someone you deeply love picks you out of the crowd and says, “I choose you,” it is not just powerfully motivating, it’s life altering.  

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Picture the scene on the Sea of Galilee in Matthew 4:18-22 when Jesus first calls some fishermen.  At His request they drop their nets, abandon everything including their father, and follow Him.  It’s initially surprising…until you consider the power of being chosen first.  Sometimes in our immaturity the response to being favored becomes narcissistic, but it doesn’t have to be this way.  There’s something holy in being chosen.  I believe we were made to want to be worthy, to be favored, to be invited as a first-round draft pick.  
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Fishermen left nets.  A tax collector left a lucrative career.  A zealot fighter left a cause.  There was something so powerful in being chosen that they couldn’t help but follow with curiosity and abandon.  To this up-and-coming rabbi, Jesus, these men mattered. They had been hand-picked, and they not only remained with Jesus through His three years of ministry, most of them stayed faithful to the very end.  The call from One who favored them was powerful enough to change their lives forever.  

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What about you?  Do you see yourself as favored by God?  You are.  How can you be a favorite if everybody’s His favorite?  I don’t understand it myself, but I believe that God has the capacity to show His genuine love and affection to us in a way that makes us feel like a top pick.  I think this is a healthy sense to have as a follower of Jesus because it does a few important things:  it opens up an intimacy with God that lifts our gaze to His (Ps 3:3), emboldens our conversations with the Almighty within His very courts (Heb 4:16), and gives us permission to sit with Him and enjoy one another’s company, even if we’re not producing anything in particular (Ps 23:2&3). 

1 John 4:19 says, “We love because He first loved us.”  This verse makes it clear that God did the initial choosing, and it also implies that we can love Him back.  Clarifying favor of his disciples in John 15:16, Jesus says, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.”  Take it from this earthly dad…when a child calls out to a father there’s no bounds to the love poured out.  Former missionary to South America and martyr for the gospel, Jim Elliot said it well, “God always gives His best to those who leave the choice with Him.”  Take heart!  Because of the choice Jesus made to give His life for ours, God the Father’s words for you today are, “I choose you.”  

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who
called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
1 Peter 2:9

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