Not My Priority
The Apostles were in the middle of the most important work in the world when someone brought a complaint to their door. Most of us know how that story ends if we were in their shoes. A reflection on Acts 6:1–7.
Acts 6:1–7
Phrases that spoke to me today:
• "it would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God"
• "men of good repute, full of the Spirit and wisdom"
• they prayed and laid their hands on them
• the word of God continued to increase
Applying the Word to My Life:
It is really easy for me to get consumed with whatever I am doing. If I am doing it, whatever it is, then it must be important to me. And then when you add my own misplaced sense of self-importance, the rest of the world can fade into the background. It turns my gifts and abilities inward so that they start serving myself instead of others — and that is the exact opposite of the direction the Holy Spirit wants me to go.
The Apostles today do better than I normally would. They were in the middle of what felt like the most important work in the world — carrying the word that had just changed everything, teaching a faith that was days old and spreading fast. And now someone is bringing a food logistics problem to their door.
I have seen many leaders dealing with much less important matters dismiss concerns like these. I have seen others, hearts in the right place, do the opposite and overcorrect. Drop the teaching, walk away from the word, pivot to the tables — telling themselves what good is it to teach the Word when the people are starving. Both responses are human.
But neither is what happened.
They did not dismiss the complaint. They did not let it knock them off the mission. They heard the people, saw what was needed, and found a way to honor both — because they were looking at the situation from somewhere above the frustration of the moment.
This is a beautiful example of Wisdom — one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Wisdom is not a scholar's gift. It is the Holy Spirit's gift to anyone willing to step out of their own vantage point and see with God's eyes. Not smarter. Not more experienced. Just seeing differently — holding these grumbling, hungry, overlooked people the way God holds them: beloved children with a real need and a legitimate grievance.
My kids have shown me what this looks like in ordinary life. More than once, one of them has come home having been hurt — something said, something spiteful, an attack that landed. The hurt is real. They feel it. But as we talk they start wondering about the person who did it — what they must be going through, what kind of circumstances bring someone to the place where they behave that way.
They stepped out of their own wound and looked at the person who hurt them the way God does — and found compassion where retaliation would have been the easier reach.
Wisdom is not a towering intellect built in a university. It is more earthy than that. It happens in kitchen conversations and in centuries-old disputes about bread. It is the capacity to step outside the moment — outside your frustration, your agenda, your pain — and see the person in front of you the way God sees them.
The Twelve could have defended the priority of the mission. My kids could have stayed in the wound. Neither did. The word of God continued to increase — not despite the care they gave to the overlooked, but because of it.
Life throws many things at us. Wisdom is seeing them as God does.
My Response for Today:
Today I will identify one situation I have been seeing from my own vantage point — and ask God to show me what he sees when he looks at it.