Five years ago I entered a lip sync contest at a private Christmas party. I wore a white choir robe and lip-synched Celine Dion’s “O Holy Night,” competing against a Village People act and a hillbilly act. As I performed, very few people noticed—only two young children who sat mesmerized on the floor in front of the stage. After the performances, we three acts stood on the stage before the onlookers as someone asked for applause for each act. The applause determined the winner. As I stood on that stage, I thought,” This is what Jesus must have felt like when he stood before the crowd and Pilate declared, ‘Here is your king!’” I received a slight smattering of applause while the other two acts “brought the house down” and tied for first place. When I took my seat I had received a text from a friend. I texted her back: “I got last place, just like Jesus.” Her return text: “Being in the company of Jesus is good.”
Yes, I was rejected. Yes, I came in last place as “honorable mention,” just as Jesus gets last place every day in so many things and in so many ways, but I would rather be rejected and stand with my Jesus than be accepted and stand with the crowd. I cannot see my reward now, but I know I will receive it when this earthly race has been run. “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. Psalm 84:10 NIV.” May we be like those two little children, mesmerized as we sit at the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ.
abundantlypardoned 