Tag, You're It

"God wants his people to be in every walk of life, in every social stratum, in every ethnic group, in every location precisely to maximize his influence and draw the world most effectively to himself. Thus he strategically deploys individuals. There is a kind of circular logic here that is nonetheless important. I am situated where I am, and I am the kind of person I am, precisely to do what only a person such as I can do: namely, to witness to, to exemplify, and to effect the gospel in my particular social matrix. Only I have these relatives, these friends, these co-workers, these enemies, these neighbors, and so on, and only I am in this set of relationships, and only I am this sort of person, therefore only I can exert the particular benign influence that only I can exert. This sounds nonsensical, of course, but I don't think it is. Instead, such a statement is vital to the realization that God has not made mistakes in making us who we are and placing us where he has in order to get done what he wants to get done...

...[W]e ought to give thanks to God that we are not more gorgeous than we are--or more intelligent, or more creative, or more rich--because if we were much more gifted, we could not function the same way in our particular roles. People might write off our testimony with 'Well, that's easy for you to say.' Or they might never feel they could identify with us, and so never confide in us. Or they might push into the Kingdom of God for the wrong reasons, to enjoy the trappings rather than the substance of the gospel of renewal. One day, thank God, we will be more beautiful and talented than we are today. But for now we are 'under cover,' playing the roles we have been given in order to achieve key mission objectives that could not be achieved were we to drop our disguises and appear in the glory that God has prepared for us..."

John G. Stackhouse Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World