Let me tell you about my all-time favorite TV commercial. It was for the St. Paul Insurance Company and the images in it were powerful enough to burn the message it was communicating into my brain before the company logo was even displayed.
It opens on a shot of a little 5 year-old white girl with curly blond hair, wearing a blue dress and standing in the middle of the African savannah. She’s all by herself, holding a long blade of grass and looking completely out of place because she seems to be dressed for Sunday School as opposed to a safari.
Next the camera flashes to something else in that same field, a distance away. It’s not a little girl this time, but a full-grown rhinoceros.
The camera focuses again on the little girl, who turns and looks at the rhino in the distance… and seems completely unimpressed by its presence. The rhino, on the other hand, catches sight of the girl, snorts with anger, and begins to charge in her direction.
The girl sees this and does nothing. She remains completely motionless as the rhino runs right at her, moving faster and faster with each stride.
The huge creature continues to gain speed and soon the camera meets in the middle as the charging beast quickly closes in on her. As it does, a large cloud of dust completely fills the screen, preventing you from seeing the anticipated carnage.
However, the dust quickly clears and the rhino is standing there, motionless next to the little girl, who is totally unharmed. She looks right at the camera, smiles, and giggles a little…then she reaches out and rubs the rhino’s horn like it’s the family puppy. No big deal.
The screen then fades to black and the tagline for the commercial appears: Trust is not being afraid, even if you are vulnerable.
After I first saw this commercial, I remember thinking, Wow, that is so accurate! Not that a rhino and a 5 year-old girl would be together in this kind of a situation, of course, but the tagline. “Trust is not being afraid, even if you are vulnerable.” That sentence has been indelibly written on my heart and mind ever since.
When I choose to live my life as an unashamed Christian on display for others to see, I am vulnerable. I open myself up for ridicule, and being labeled a religious nut-job in conversation. I run the risk every time I choose to speak up about the name of Jesus Christ.
But if I believe in the One who calls me to reach out to others with the message and love of the gospel as an example for all to see, I don’t need to be afraid. Why? Because I trust in His goodness. I trust in His power. I trust in His ability to do amazing and eternal things in other people’s lives through someone who is as thoroughly awkward as I am. And that gives me the confidence to know it really isn’t about my eloquence or brilliant responses to profound questions. It isn’t necessarily about how great I am at saying the right thing at the right time or making sure I live my life perfectly so I can be the ultimate example of a follower of Christ.
It’s about trusting that God can bring people to Himself if I step out in faith and make myself vulnerable. 1 Corinthians 2:3-5 says this about what God can do in spite of who we are:
I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
Beautiful, isn’t it? God chooses to use us in our weakness to prove how strong He is. Why? So the recognition and glory can go to God and never be mistaken as something achieved by the feeble power of my humanity.
In the Old Testament, we are given another example of this via Psalm 8:2:
Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. (ESV)
Isn’t that cool? God can use the babbling words of infants and babies to demonstrate the kind of power He has over everything. What is more lightweight than the nonsensical ramblings of infant children? I have children who were once babies, so trust me—the answer is “nothing.” And God says here that He is capable of manifesting His strength to still His enemies through that kind of medium. More proof God uses the weak to communicate how strong He is.
A friend of mine once told me that God uses crooked sticks to draw straight lines. It really is quite incredible to think the Creator of the universe chooses to involve us in what He is doing to show Himself off and reconcile people to Himself. Miserable, messed up, selfish people like me and you are the tools (crooked sticks) God chooses to use in His divine plan to redeem mankind (straight lines)…all we have to do is make ourselves available.
Trust is not being afraid, even if you’re vulnerable.
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