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Archives: July 2009
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Archives: July 2009
Just one of the crowd...
By Dan Etheridge
I’ve just been watching a bit of Glastonbury this last weekend and one of the things that I found amazing were just the sheer numbers of people that managed to squeeze themselves around one stage; they had some seriously massive crowds.
In amongst the footage of Bruce Springsteen pulling some rock n roll moves, Dizzy Rascal fixing up and looking sharp or Damon moaning about his country house, were these awesome epic crowd shots. Every now and then the camera would pan round and you’d get a glimpse of thousands and thousands of faces, then hands and then blurs as far off into the distance as my telly could manage to show me. The people right at the front were pretty keen. They must have been working their way forward for hours, trying to nudge into a spot right up by the stage to get the best view. Some blatantly were trying to grab the singers (or bands) attention too. Most of them didn’t manage it, but even those that did only got a brief handshake, high five or quick nod of acknowledgement.
Now, I’ve got nothing against Damon, Dizzy or Bruce and their screaming fans (in fact I’m a recent convert to the Nebraska LP), but the sight did get me thinking. Ever been at church or an event like Soul Survivor and felt just another part of the crowd? It’s pretty easy, especially when we’re gathered with thousands of others, to feel like God’s attention is elsewhere.
There must be times, if we’re all honest, when we’ve been in Church and everyone around us seems to be connecting with God, or all our mates have had an amazing time of prayer and we’re just left thinking ‘will I ever get noticed?’ or ‘when will it be my turn to have an amazing word from God?’.
Who do we want to notice us?
I’ve worked through this stuff quite a bit. Although I like being part of the crowd (I’m a definite stand at the back and remain anonymous kind of guy), I’m coming to know that I also like to be noticed. I think we all do in our own way. It is part of our desire to belong, to feel loved and to be respected. In itself that’s no bad thing. But personally, I often find that I want to be noticed by the ‘important people’.
I can relate to the screaming fans who’d love to grab the attention of Bruce, Damon or Dizzy. Deep down I think most of us can. We need to be loved and valued. It’s an essential bit of how we’re made.
But if we only look to Bruce, or in our Christian worlds, the worship leaders, church leaders and dog breeders (that rhymes), then we’re looking to get our need for value satisfied in the wrong place.
Don’t get me wrong, church leaders are people we need and they play a massively important role in growing us and our relationship with Jesus, but they aren’t Jesus.
The idea of the ‘priesthood of all believers’ that Peter writes about in his letter to the early church highlights that there is no single person in our churches who stands before God on our behalf… we all can have God’s attention, we all can approach him and hear from him (see 1 Peter 2v4-12).
So it’s him - Jesus - that we ultimately want to notice us. He’s the only one who can satisfy our need to be noticed; not Bruce, not your worship leader, not that girl over there… Jesus.
But does he notice us? What about those times when everyone else is going for it, but we’re just longing to be seen? Does God see us?
Jesus and the crowds…
The answer is of course he does. Think of Jesus and crowds. Like now, back then, people gathered in large and small numbers to meet him. Whether it be the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5) or that time he had to get in a boat and teach from of shore because of the vast numbers of people who’d turned up to hear him (Matthew 13v1-2), Jesus always seemed to be gathering a crowd.
But there must have been some who just wanted him to notice them. Like me, and the fans of Bruce, there must have been some people who were just longing for him to involve, acknowledge and include them.
And he did. At the same time as drawing the crowds he saw individuals. He made stuff deeply personal. He picked out Zacchaeus who was stuck up a tree and spoke directly into his life (Luke 19). He stopped when the woman who’d been bleeding for years touched him (Luke 8v43-47). He spotted the little old widow put in just a tiny offering and highlighted her generosity (Luke 21v1-4). Jesus saw beyond the crowds and gave attention, dignity, respect, love and value to those who weren’t noticed by anyone else.
Beyond the crowds …
Whether we’re in church, at Soul Survivor, in our youth groups, at CU, cell group or just living out our lives with the rest of the crowd we have to remember that Jesus sees us. He sees beyond the crowds and spots us, knows us, hears us and loves us. Seriously, he does. For our part, we need to ask God to forgive us of the times when we turn our attention away from him and look to others to satisfy our need for value. But we also need to know that Jesus does notice us.
Even in the midst of Soul Survivor events with thousands of people clambering for God’s attention, even if we’re not singing along or we feel totally lost in the crowds, he notices us, wants to pour his love out on us and meet with us. Sometimes he might not do what we expect or even want, but he longs for us to realise that he notices us and loves us… he longs for us to find our value in him.
I imagine that I’ll be struggling with where I find my value for the rest of my life. I’m definitely aware of the fact that I need to be loved and like to be noticed, and at times I take those desires and needs to Jesus. At times I don’t, and I can end up feeling lost again. Seeing the screaming Bruce fans, I think, was God’s way of reminding me to stop trying to get attention and value from other people and to find my identity in him; it’s his way of saying he does notice, that he does love me and does value me. He says the same about you too.
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