To those who worshipped one God and strove to live the teachings of Christ, Peter wrote, “…you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light” I Peter 2:9, NLT.
You are a chosen people! It can be a comforting feeling to be chosen. When in primary school, if the teacher chose you to lead the class to the lunchroom, you might have felt a bit special. Or if your best friends chose to throw a surprise birthday party, you might have felt singled out for love. Or if you were recognized as a top performer at work, you might have felt particularly honored and “chosen.”
It’s okay to feel special. As a child of God, you are special!
But along with being “special,” comes responsibility. In a spiritual context, as Peter mentions above, the “chosen,” are to “show others the goodness of God.” That’s what they are chosen to do. Not to bask in worldly glory, “Look how great I am!” Or to retreat into a self-satisfied, “I’ve arrived,” complacent egotistical dullness. But to come alive with truth and love and be actively sharing it with neighbors.
If you love the one God and believe there is merit to Christ’s teachings, then God has chosen you…to love, to share, to care, to make a positive difference, to heal.
God has chosen you to reflect the Light of Truth, to be spiritually minded, to extend the hand of compassion, to let others know how special they are, to lift burdens off of other’s thought, to heal the sick, to comfort the downtrodden and let God’s all-embracing care be felt and known by more and more people.
It’s a big job “to be chosen!” It’s no small task to put self aside and love others unselfishly. But it brings immeasurable reward.
To live the life of “the chosen,” is to live intimately close with God, to not be all wrapped up in self-care and worry, and to feel the overflow of Love pouring out from your being into the environment all around. It’s freeing! It’s liberating. It’s healing for you and for others. And it’s the route to heaven.
I have had times when I felt I was chosen, but I have never acted upon it the way you and Peter suggest. Maybe this blog will further that happening for me.
Oh Evan, this is an amazing blog! “To show others the goodness of God.” What a life mission!
So many questioners as to why we’re here when it is so self evident; GOD NEEDS US AS IMPORTANTLY AS WE NEED GOD. Otherwise we are nothing, a happenstance, valueless.
Expression is what we’re here for. God needs us for expression of himself. Isn’t that the highest of all?
Evan, thank you for sharing these uplifting ideas. I was feeling rather burdened at 5:30 a.m. when asked by my roommate to make something to eat — it is very painful for him to walk right now. However, I did my best to respond with love, but behind it was some annoyance. Not now, now I can see I too have been chosen, and I have a long way to grow, but with the help of others who are chosen, I can find the path, understand the lightness of the load and the joy and blessings it must bring!! I am most grateful.
“Chosen” is a tricky concept. As God’s ideas we are all chosen.
Like the rays of the sun. we are given different tasks.
Some rays “glint from the church dome, some glance into the prison cell, some glide into the prison cell…some “brighten the flower, beautify the landscape, blesses the earth.” (Paraphrased from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, Pg. 516)
I struggle with the problem of trying to help, save, fix others… many times before I clear my
thought about who they really are: Perfect! Any “helping, etc.” must be strictly under God’s wise directing. This is not always easy, but I sure am seeing the wisdom of it. And “fixing?” No,
we need not fix others. That is God’s job, to show them they do not need fixing!!
amen
Very nicely put. I have always felt blessed that my direction was to God. In Matthew I think is ‘let you light so shine to glorify your father who is in heaven” I didn’t think of it as the way you expressed it. I thought of it as individual salvation, being as God intended, as part of the whole mix of things. I learned to be very respectful of the unique unfolding of people’s lives and not to interfere. God is right there for them. As a parent, I learned not to upset this in my children. Interfering is not helpful to them at all. But I think as you grow spiritually you can’t help but express the love of God, you just can’t, and people feel safe and close with you. It can bring out the best that is always there in everyone.
I was able to attend a wonderful meeting in 1951 where there was an astronaut speaking. He mentioned that the sky was dark purple when he was flying and I ignorantly asked “how come”? I felt that if the sun were out there everything should be bright. He simply explained that the sun had nothing upon which to reflect as the air is so thin in space. It immediately occurred to me that is why God needs man to express, reflect Him, so that he can be a light to all. Werner von Braun was on the panel too.
Thank you again and again, Evan, for your wonderful insights. And thanks to Sally Strickland for clearing up for me the idea that God (who I believe is self-complete and doesn’t need anything). God/Light is everywhere and so is man/light-beam as Her reflection. Happy thoughts.
I feel very blessed to be conscious oF God. I try to do the right thing and I feel responsible to live up to what God might expect from me. I hope that Iam on the right track.
Thank you, Evan. I’ve been thinking about “presenting the Christ”..our real purpose. We are chosen to be CHRIST -like. To present the Christ to others. To love.