Monday, February 26, 2007

Painful humility

In the church, this "non-strategic ministry of the mundane" means sometimes I must be interruptible for tasks not on my agenda. I need to be available to pray with troubled people whom I will not be able to cure and who have no ability to contribute to my success. Sometimes in meetings I need to remain silent even when I have a thought that might impress somebody. Sometimes I need not to seek out information, even when I could get it and it would make me feel part of the inner ring.

Sometimes, non-strategic ministry just involves following the rules everybody else follows. Muhammad ("I am the greatest") Ali once allegedly refused to fasten his seatbelt on an airplane. After repeated requests from the flight attendent to buckle up, he finally said, "Superman don't need no seat belt." To which she is said to have replied, "Superman don't need no airplane."

...For God's great, holy joke about the messiah complex is this: Every human being who has ever lived has suffered from it, except one. And he was the Messiah.

John Ortberg (Leadership email, 30/1/07)

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