Everyone has values. And our values are conspicuous. Our values are apparent in our spending, our attentiveness, our habits, our vigilance, and our concern regarding appearances. For instance, if you shadowed me for 5 days, you’d see that I value my iPhone, YouTube, rock climbing, running, audiobooks, “me time”, tidiness, doodling, and people’s perceptions. A flagrant example of our frenzied and fraughtful value system(s) is found in the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Mark, where we see the leaders of the most important organization of all time and eternity arguing about which one of them is the greatest. Every single one of these guys is concerned with being SEEN as ‘impressive’, and appearances are everything (e.g. 1 Samuel 9:2; 16:7; 2 Samuel 7:2; 4-7). What’s interesting, is that God doesn’t shutdown the discussion regarding greatness, and He doesn’t dismiss their preoccupation with appearances …God calls a child to APPEAR in the midst of these conceited leaders, and simply points at this OUTRAGEOUS DISPLAY of powerlessness and unimpressiveness and says, “This is what true greatness looks like! A vulnerable, helpless, child amidst a group of aggressive grown men arguing about their own greatness! If you want to be great, you gotta become like this child.” Notice that it is not enough for this leadership team to merely hear about the concept of true greatness, they need more than that; they need to SEE a concrete, manifest, example of true greatness. In other words, God cares about appearances! God cares about what we are impressed by, and what we tangibly esteem and promote as ‘great’! Another emphatic example of this is found in Revelation chapter 5, where we are commanded to behold the lion of Judah (which is to say, “Give your attention to Someone super impressive and exceedingly powerful”); but what God actually SHOWS us is a lamb who looks like He’s been slain! Again, God cares about appearances! God cares about you being impressed with the appearance(s) of TRUE GREATNESS. Yet another example of this is found in the Gospel of Mark chapter twelve, where God is WATCHING people tithe large sums of money (i.e. these are the kind of “significant/impressive” donors who give so much money, that they end up getting their names on buildings!). But Jesus doesn’t primarily promote or esteem these people. Rather, Jesus emphatically CALLS OUR ATTENTION to a poor widow donating two small copper coins, which make a penny! We cannot stress this enough… God cares about appearances! God cares about what you label “most impressive”! God cares about who you esteem and honor as “TRUE CELEBRITIES!”
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