Rejoice if you are mediocre, unattractive, unintelligent, don’t-stand-out-from-the-crowd in any way. You will have a far easier time being great in the kingdom of God where it really counts.

I think it is true that those who are deemed to be valuable by the society – attractive, intelligent, high-acheiving, gifted, wealthy – will have a lot tougher time achieving high marks in God’s book. Why? Because God judges by a completely different standard. God judges by how dependent we are to Him, how humble, and how we draw our value from God rather than ourselves. But the attractive, intelligent, high-achieving people are less likely to be dependent on God (or anyone else) since they are so self-sufficent.

Matthew 18:1-4, “At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Think of a child. He knows he’s prone to err. He knows he needs his mom and dad. He knows he doesn’t know everything. He takes rebukes easily because he doesn’t think of himself too highly. Which are all the characteristics opposite of those who are the learned, the high-achievers, and the good-looking.

Isn’t it interesting that even as Christians, we try to instill values into our children (or students) the values that would actually drive them further away from God? We teach them to be self-reliant (rather than god-reliant), wealthy (rather than rich in God), to have high self-esteem (rather than god-esteem), etc?

What if we started seeing the world God’s way? The upside down way. What if we saw ourselves this way? What if we saw our own children this way?

Rejoice if you are ugly, dumb, and mediocre! You have a far better chance of being great where it truly matters!

PH