Go After God's HeartSample

Well, There’s Still … the Youngest

You’re up against a chain-link fence trying to find the perfect balance between standing on the balls of your feet to look taller and plastering your shoulders back to look stronger. The only thing tenser than your abdomen is your brain as it tries to mind-control the two cool, athletic kids who stand five feet of playground concrete in front of you. The line of kickball players has been thinned to just you and the kid who’s yet to actually kick a ball past the pitcher. Despite all your best antics, it happens. You’re picked last.

Maybe you were never picked last on the playground or maybe you were. Maybe you had many failed relationships before someone finally stuck around. Perhaps co-workers always seem to make friends or get raises before you. Who knows, maybe you’re still waiting to be asked to lead a small group at church. If you breathe, you have in some way felt left behind.

You’re not alone in feeling last. David—the guy whose lineage bore Jesus—was not even considered for the lineup. Samuel, who was responsible for anointing the next king, went through all of David’s brothers before David’s father, Jesse, awkwardly admitted there was still “the youngest.” He came in from the fields somewhere between 10 and 13 years old, dirty, smelling of sheep, and God finally picked David—last.

Leader Tip: Your qualifications didn’t call you to leadership—God did. It doesn’t matter how you’re picked so much as it matters by whom you’re picked.