How to do church Part 6: ditch the pedestals

Helen Redfern › Join Our Journey

Now

Don’t ever put me on a pedestal. Just in case you were thinking of it.

Don’t ever put any leader, teacher or writer on a pedestal, come to think of it. We’re all only human, after all.

We’re servants of God, servants not masters. It doesn’t really matter to me what you think of me or what anyone else thinks of me. It’s only what God thinks of me that really matters.

Don’t imagine that you are in a position to judge me – either positively or negatively. Only God sees it all and knows it all. He’s the only one whose ‘Well Done!’ really counts for anything.

Everything I may have and everything I am is a gift from God. I’m nothing special. It’s the same for all those other spiritual leaders, teachers and writers out there. And it’s the same for you too! None of us can take credit for what we have achieved. It all comes from God.

So ditch the comparisons. Ditch the competition. Ditch the envy. Ditch the judgements. There’s no need for any of that. We all have everything we need in God.

It’s not at all romantic or glamorous, speaking out for God in a world that isn’t interested in listening to what you have to say, you know. We’re fools for Christ, regarded as fools most of the time. We get treated as freaks and misfits. We don’t belong. People don’t know how to handle us. They treat us with suspicion. They watch and wait for us to fail, to make a mistake.

And yet we’re called to respond in love, to react with grace.

That never gets any easier.

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This message for us as church today was based on 1 Corinthians 4:1-13 from The Message