Hi, this is Joni Eareckson Tada and welcome to "Joni and Friends".
You know one of the things I love doing on our Facebook page is sharing certain Bible verses that have blessed me lately, and I have found that sometimes you can find the richest gems in the very first verse of the first chapter in a book in the Bible. Take the first verse in I Peter. I know you’ve heard it 100 times but, like me, you pass over these things so quickly. I mean, what could be rich in a short verse that merely opens up the letter, right? Well, in I Peter chapter 1, verse 1, Peter says that he’s an apostle of Jesus writing to—now get this—God's elect, strangers in the world and scattered throughout.
I read that the other day and just had to sit for a while on that phrase, “strangers in the world”, believers who are scattered throughout the world. I’ve met a few sisters and brothers in Christ like that, as I’ve traveled around the globe. They are the kind who are, indeed, scattered. They almost feel forgotten; they live so apart, so outside where everything seems to be happening. I remember when I was in Peru with our Wheels for the World team. I met a dear man (a Christian brother) who had traveled far from up in the Andes Mountains to come to one of our meetings. This guy really looked like he was from the mountains: he looked Incan and he wore the typical Incan flat-brimmed hat. It had taken him 16 hours to get to our wheelchair distribution as he held his disabled son on his lap. I don’t know how many bus transfers this man had to deal with, but he arrived—bless his heart—and sat there up against the wall with his son, waiting patiently in line. My Spanish isn’t the best, but I can manage at least a few cordial greetings, and I can actually understand better than I can speak. Well, when I thanked the man for coming all this way to help his disabled son, he told me it was no bother. When I asked him more about his story, he seemed surprised that I was interested. He told me that he was a nobody, no one of real importance. My heart went out to him when he said that, but I tell you that man from the mountains in Peru is not alone.
You don’t have to live in the mountains. You could be in a little apartment in a big city and, still you could feel like you are on the fringe. You feel like him: living away from it all, feeling like you’re a stranger right there in your own community because you, well you live on the circumference of the Christian community. And maybe, just maybe, that makes you feel like a nobody; like, you’re a stranger to everyone—not in the flow, not in the mainstream, not living where the action is. You feel scattered!
If this is you, if you feel like you’re on the fringe of the action, remember the rest of those wonderful words in I Peter. You may be a stranger in the world and you may be scattered, but you are God's elect and you have been—as it says in the next verse—chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ. Did you get that, did you hear it? The entire Trinity—Father, Spirit, and Son—are actively involved in your life. So come on, with that you are not on the edge, you’re not out there among the numberless and nameless. You’re not forgotten; you’re not a nobody in the Christian faith. The whole focus of the Trinity is directed upon you. And if you feel lonely today, friend, remember this mere fact puts you right in the center of action in God’s universe. So get in the flow. Friend, you’re in the mainstream. Praise the Father, agree with the Spirit, and obey the Son and you’ll never feel like a scattered stranger again.
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