Jeremiah 30:20b-21 – A Leader Like Us

And I will punish all who oppress them.
21
Their nobles shall be from among them,
And their governor shall come from their midst;
Then I will cause him to draw near,
And he shall approach Me;
For who is this who pledged his heart to approach Me?’ says the Lord. Jeremiah 30:20b-21, New King James Version

As Chief Financial Officer for a small Christian college, Chris works mostly remotely. Gifted with an incisive, analytical mind, he makes the tough calls the numbers dictate. When he comes among the flock, he does so with an awe he would deflect having anything to do with generating.

Nevertheless, for instance, he visited with those who had been grappling daily with the details of a software update, and within minutes he caught on to the minutia that it took most people considerably longer to absorb.

When I worked there, Chris usually went by in a friendly flourish. Meetings were already lined up at decision points for maximum efficiency. Yet, he paused as he went past my office door, backtracked, paused his incessant, analytics and motion, and complemented the Fedora on my desk.

It wouldn't make or break the college. It shouldn't, logically, have taken up the mental RAM he needed for upcoming clarity, but it was MY trademark. It was one of the few things I allowed in my aspirations to Chris-like efficiency just because I liked it.

It was worth spending a little money. It was worth keeping up with it and the risk of losing it just because it was distinctive, just because it said ME with a flair I didn't often feel in those days. It was, in retrospect, just the kind of declaration of image-of-God individualism in defiance of the demonic urge to constantly conform to the elusive requirements of moment that CS Lewis's fictional demon Screwtape would have been wary of.

Chris catching it, and then returning to the capacity to value what was important to one of his "sheep" when he actually sought me out to return the Fedora to me expresses in miniature the duality of Jeremiah 30:20-21. Sometimes we feel oppressed, like a tool, like a cog in someone else's machine, a means to an end, and not as efficient a means to an end as we or others would like.

Sometimes that's the attitude intended. Often, the experience of this sensation has more to do with how we as Christians let the enemy of our soul twist the discipline and discernment others must exercise. The end result of serving fields impersonal, frustrating, sometimes futile.

But keep reading, keep living, keep serving, and verse 20 moments turn over to verse 21 moments. We get reminders that those we serve with and under have a lot in common with us, that they see us as people, as brothers and sisters in a common cause, that we are governed by people from our midst whom, if we are especially blessed, are interceding with God on our behalf. They not only see our function. They see our Fedora, our flair, our funk, and celebrate and support it.

Whether we are in a verse 20 phase or in a verse 21 oasis, we can channel our hearts' aspirations toward Christ in Whom these verses are ultimately fulfilled. He saw, and sees, the biggest of big pictures. He taught His own to check their fleshly impulses toward self-importance with honest reminders that we are but wicked and unprofitable servants who often, as in that context, demand resources and rewards before we have stepped down in humble obedience. He set His face toward Jerusalem, and set the tone of His own following after Him with crosses of discipline and suffering toward a larger goal.

Yet, His own were and are individuals to Him, not chess pieces. He positioned Himself as the Intercessor Job longed for, enough like us in our vulnerability and discouragement, in our individual details and delights that He can identify. He is our Kinsman Redeemer, aware of the bolus of courage we need even in situations that won't make or break His universe, and equally aware of the earthly provision we need, lest, like those who stepped out in faith to hear and respond to His teaching, we drop on life's road.

We have, then, the two-eyed depth perception of the mind of Christ. We can, CFO's of the ministry to which He calls us, count the cost and urge others to do the same, keep one of our eyes on the ultimate goal, and count earthly things solely for what they will be worth in Heaven. Simultaneously, we can see them for the context and encounters they furnish here, the conversations they can start, the instances they initiate wherein we can show our commonality with those God gives us to influence.

Sometimes a hat is not just a hat. It's an opportunity to draw near. It's an opportunity to see someone as an individual God created and to declare in a subtle way at a moment's expense that they might also come to mind in our prayers as we pledge to approach the ultimate Haberdasher of righteousness on their behalf.