Flashy People Don't Connect

This post was inspired by a recent MasterCard commercial in which Peyton Manning only hears the best even as people are trying to say hurtful things. For example, when a room service man tells him, "Don't choke on that" he responds, "Thanks, I think I will just cut it up, maybe make a fruit salad!" Or the woman who tells him, "Hey Manning, take a hike!" to which he responds, "You know, that's a good idea, I think I will go for a hike today... this weather is great!" It was classic Manning; self-deprecating and humorous.

As I sat there I realized that he probably got paid many, many dollars to make those commercials. MasterCard had many, many choices of celebrities they could have chosen, and they chose Peyton Manning. They did not choose him because he is flashy, because flashy people don't connect. Flashy people may catch your eye, they may even help you move some product, but if your goal is to connect on a personal level with people... flashy people just don't do that very well. We may love to look at them, but for many reasons we never feel truly connected to them.

There is this flawed belief that it will be the flashy Christians that change the world. That is just not true. The flashy Christians will play their part, and it is an important part because they help communicate a message to many. It will be the ordinary Christians, however, that win the day. Because, at the end of the day Christianity is about relationships, and relationships require connection. As important as his ministry is, Billy Graham did not change many lives. He touched millions of them... and then God took that touch and connected those people to ordinary, every day Christians. That is where the process of life change really happened in those lives. And, for every one Billy Graham there must be millions of us ordinary people to carry out our special calling.

Look at any successful ministry that has maintained a large impact and you will find thousands of ordinary people at the heart of that success. Of course, I may have it all backwards, and what I call flashy God may call ordinary. It could just be that the truly extraordinary among us are those who make the 1 on 1 connections that help change lives.