Just a Farm Boy
There are two movies in which I remember the use of the term “Farm Boy,” The Princess Bride and Star Wars: A New Hope. The term is used in both of those movies as sort of an insult, referring to one of the characters as someone who has little experience and little potential to ever be more than they are at that moment. Well, of course, you know that both of those characters go on to be the hero in those stories. Westley goes away to earn his fortune to provide a life for Buttercup. He returns a master swordsman and takes down the evil plot of Prince Humperdinck. Luke wanted to leave the farm and join the rebellion against the empire. He never had any aspirations of becoming a Jedi Knight upon whom the hopes of the entire galaxy would rest.
The Bible is full of stories of people just like this. Abraham leaves his home to become the father of a new nation. Moses faces down Pharaoh to lead the people to freedom. Gideon comes out of hiding to lead God’s army to miraculous victory. And of course, the shepherd boy who became the greatest King in the history of Israel. Paul reminds us that God operates this way intentionally.
The Bible is full of stories of people just like this. Abraham leaves his home to become the father of a new nation. Moses faces down Pharaoh to lead the people to freedom. Gideon comes out of hiding to lead God’s army to miraculous victory. And of course, the shepherd boy who became the greatest King in the history of Israel. Paul reminds us that God operates this way intentionally.
__________________________
Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life.
I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”?
-1 Cor. 1:26-28 (MSG)
I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”?
-1 Cor. 1:26-28 (MSG)
__________________________
We have a tendency to rate people solely upon their strengths. I challenge you to always see the farm boy in people. Saul looked amazing, but his heart was far from God. I suggest you look there first.
__________________________
The Princess Bride. Directed by Rob Reiner, performances by Cary Elwes and Robin Wright, Act III Communications, 1987.
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Directed by George Lucas, performances by Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher, Lucasfilm, 1977.
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Directed by George Lucas, performances by Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher, Lucasfilm, 1977.
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