Day 95

((Part 2 of "Admirable People" posts. . .))

Whenever I thought about what actually makes a person admirable? Is it the personality or the accomplishments?, God led me to read Isaiah 42:1-4,

Take a good look at my servant. I'm backing him to the hilt.
He's the one I chose, and I couldn't be more pleased with him.
He'll set everything right among the nations.
He won't call attention to what he does with loud speeches or gaudy parades.
He won't brush aside the bruised and the hurt and he won't disregard the small and insignificant, but he'll steadily and firmly set things right.
He won't tire out and quit.
He won't be stopped until he's finished his work—to set things right on earth.
Far flung ocean islands wait expectantly for his teaching.

At first, I found difficulty visualising the kind of person that fits into that description. Is it like a world-famous leader? A philanthropist? A missionary? A lawyer? A doctor? A politician? A filmmaker? I had no clue.

Very recently, I read the life of Bob Goff from his book, 'Love Does'. I bet most of us haven’t heard of him before. He’s not a celebrity nor a noble prize winner (he deserves one, by the way). He may have never appeared on international TV channels before, but I strongly believe Bob could be a legend. He lives a whimsical adventurous purposeful life. His stories were full of paradigm shifts. All of a sudden, I understood those Isaiah verses better:

"In a world driven by self-promotion and spin, Jesus modelled something different for us. Secretly incredible people keep what they do one of God's best-kept secrets because the only one who needs to know, the God of the universe, already knows. Secretly incredible people just do things. The task would probably be even nobler if we didn't talk about it and just did it instead. I'd rather trade all the religious jargon for the chance to invite one person into experiencing Jesus."
- Bob Goff

That’s it! That's the keywords I had been searching for to describe admirable people: secretly incredible. It aligns perfectly to what's written in Isaiah 42:1-4. What makes someone admirable is not his/her title or profession or status or the organisation and company he/she works for. It is what fuels them to take action and make impacts on their surroundings. Not just that, someone becomes more admirable when they don’t call attention to what they do and steadily do those incredible things secretly; because they know those works and actions are not to make them more famous. It's about making God's love evident in people's lives. This revelation gave me chills.

So what do I do now? What’s my next step to live a secretly incredible life that displays God's love?

Bob wrote in his epilogue, “start by doing something you already think is beautiful or lasting and meaningful. Pick something you aren’t just able to do; instead, pick something you feel like you were made to do and then do lots of that. You are here and I am here. God decided to have us intersect history, not at just any time, but at this time. We’re not just a cosmic biology experiment that ended up working. We’re part of God’s much bigger plan for the whole world. After Jesus arrived, God whispered to all of humanity. . . 'It’s your move.' Heaven’s been leaning over the rails in the same way ever since you got here, waiting to see what you’ll do with your life."

Let's not aim to be somebody's admirable person. Let's become a doer of incredible things, because the Lord we serve is worthy of admiration. J

Read more about being secretly incredible:

• Sermon on the Mount by Jesus
• Love Does by Bob Goff

((Whew, this surely is a long post.))