Here Be Leaders

What do you see? Amid the cars on blocks, the guys lounging on the porch with beer cans and cigarettes, the women with shirts that don’t cover enough, the houses missing windows, the peeling paint, the curling siding—what do you see?

I see two groups of sweaty fishermen worn out from a fruitless catch. I see a tax collector hunkered down beneath guilt and snide epithets. I see a crippled man continually hoping someone will put him into the pool. I see a woman slinking down to the well for water.

Beneath those oil-smears and belly-bearing tank tops are evangelists, leaders, pastors, teachers, singers, and testimonies. Beside the rusted out Impalas are Peters and Philips, Matthews and Pauls. Really.

Jesus saw leaders in the dirty, rejected, and fallen. He saw new life in those who’d settled for the old. And, even better, He taught these people to see beneath the grime too.

Wherever you live, whatever your city, there are leaders waiting. We have to forget what the world says about how and where leaders come from—too many of them are left sitting with beer cans on front porches.

So, what do you see?