Comfort or glory?

Were you the popular one at school? Then you might not understand this…this is for all the drop-outs, the losers, the sinners, the failures, and the fools, to quote Jon Foreman.

This is not a “victim” rant. Yes, I was mercilessly harassed by my classmates. Yes, I still harbor a slight grudge every once in a while, but for the most part, it’s over and forgotten, and best left alone.

One of the gifts I got after graduating high school was a trip back to our hometown in upstate New York to visit my old friends. While hanging out with them one night at a Friendly’s, I met up with one of the neighborhood girls who used to antagonize me. She immediately knew who I was, and said “Wow…I used to be so mean to you…I was such a jerk!” and apologized for the way she used to act. That alone was enough to neutralize what my supposedly “mature” graduating classmates had put me through just in the previous year .

For some reason, a few days ago I started remembering the way they treated me, and this thought occurred to me: Jesus never tells us that becoming identified with him will finally get us into the “popular” group and relieve all our worries. On the contrary, being in Him, the bible tells us, will likely cause division and ridicule from the unbelieving world at our expense. I had to stop and think about that for a second. I’m an adult now, and the people who used to “terrorize” me in school have probably moved on to more fruitful uses of their time (I can only hope). We should all be past this, right? Why would I want to keep being ridiculed after I’ve moved on in my life?

There will always be people who feel the “need” to put you down in order to make themselves feel good, and not all of them will say “sorry” as my former tormentor did. Jesus doesn’t deny this, so neither should we. Is there any rejection, any ridicule we can suffer greater than that of our savior on the cross?

We need to love Christ more than our comfort.

Lord, trade our self-worth for your glory. Make us understand that though we may have trouble in this world, you have overcome it, and we need not fear regardless of the “troubles” facing us.