For many years, I worked in an organization where I was required to assign my signature to another when I was going on vacation or was unreachable for more than a day. I still recall the process with an sense of fear. Who could or should I trust? What would he or she do with my trust? How much damage would be done in my name?
The source of my fear was simply that my signature was going to be out of my control. I hoped that I was making a mistake. I knew I could never be 100% sure of what would happen in an unknown, undefined, yet to be imagined situation. I wondered what my accountability for an outcome I did not agree with would be.
In this context, I find God’s description of one man in particular interesting. “He's a man whose heart beats to my heart, a man who will do what I tell him.” (Acts 13.22) The history that followed in this man’s life is littered with mistakes, blunders, and failures. The description sounded like God had a proxy. The history that followed looks like the realization of my greatest fears.
In the context of life today, I find the paradox oddly comforting. I see a God that looks to my heart’s approach to life. I catch a glimpse of someone that knows I will make a mess of things, failing miserably. I also see someone who is willing to extend an embrace as I reach for life’s ideals. It is a peace filled image grounded in reality.
We have examples of how others before us followed God’s principles of love, exercising compassion, giving birth to acceptance, and bringing mercy to those in need. With today’s dawn, you and I have the freedom to engage in the ordinary events of life. We can choose our path and the methods we will use. We can also determine the ways we will deliver them. Embedded in everything is a standing invitation to be God’s proxy. It is a calling worthy of our best.
