Chosen
As someone who was ALWAYS chosen LAST for the teams in gym class, this entry brought the shame and humiliation of those moments right to the surface. In one class, the jock-ettes even argued over me, “If she’s playing for us, let her play with the other team. We’ll get more points from her that way.” Five decades later, that exclusion still hurts.
I did know the excitement of being chosen first for a team, also, for the spelling bee. Once, when the teacher selected me to be the scorekeeper to even out the numbers on the spelling teams, my team erupted with complaints, “No, don’t take her! We need her so we can win!” That felt good in the moment but did not diminish the sting from gym class. And not until today did I ever stop to think of how it felt for the student who was subsequently selected to be scorekeeper while no one objected.
In today’s verses, we learn that God had chosen the Israelites. As we are God’s people through Christ, He has chosen us, too. I know that is supposed to bring me comfort, but there’s a lot of history of the Jewish–and Christian–people that makes me wonder what it means to be God’s chosen people. In current times, what does being chosen by God look like?
Perhaps due to my personal history in gym class, today I find myself thinking more about those who are feeling excluded from God’s choosing. Why are there teams of “chosen” and “unchosen” when it comes to God’s love?
50 years ago when I read the Course in Miracles and the Objectivist newsletter, it was in concert with Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I liked the heroine. When it led to a glorification of individualism over the common good I drifted away and never when back. It seems to me there is always the chance for a leader (whether a people or a person) to lose focus and get fixated on oneself rather than on those one purports to lead.