[. Perfect .]

This is an entry for the request of defining perfect... a conversation that began from monika's page... and because this is too long to type into her chatterbox, therefore I decided to post it here instead ^-^
[***this is all subjective, touchy, biased, interpretation n reflection by me]

I looked at the evaluation of perfect and imperfect based on our human observations. I'm gonna coin the term humanistic-social-measurements. [heehee... I make up too many words already.. n now terms.. oh boy]
so what are these measurements?
> age, sex/gender, race, education, knowledge... anything that we will go through on a checklist (created by man thru man's understanding) before (in this case) saying, Yes, we have met the requirements and are qualified for doing God's work; we are now ready, perfect, and adequate for the job

My question, "does God choose perfect ppl to lead?" is a reflection, an interpretation and another way of challenging the notion "putting God in a box" which I was hoping it would help us reflect by relating it to what makes an adequate leader, and in a broader sense, what makes a person ready to do God's work. It's to help us think of more questions such as: "does God go through a checklist to see who he will choose to do his work?", "if so, what could be on His checklist?", "does God favour males?", "is age a concern of His?"...etc.

To further illustrate my idea... (yes, me n my crazy ideas =p)
I'm going to use the story of Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand (probably not the best example, but was the one that popped into my mind. ^-^)
This story is told in all four gospels (the first four books of the New Testament - Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John) and I'm going to use the account from John 6:1-15 cuz it's more detailed in the characters for this story.
and here it is =)

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

1Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. 3Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4The Jewish Passover Feast was near.
5When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" 6He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
7Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages[1] would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"
8Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, 9"Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"
10Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. 11Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
12When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." 13So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
14After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world." 15Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

[ sawas' analysis ]

Situation:
- a great crowd of people followed Jesus
- the Jewish Passover Feast - a festival that celebrates the deliverance from condemnation and bondage in Egypt and beginning of new life - was near.... Q: how near?

Conflict:
- crowd is still there with Jesus and his disciples... they need food (bread)
- Jesus asks his disciple, Philip, where to get the food
- Philip estimates that 8 month's wages is not enough for so many people... Q: does he have 8 months of wages with him? Is money the determining factor to help Jesus feed the people?

Solution:
- Jesus' disciple, Andrew, found five loaves of bread and two small fish from a boy.... Q: who was this boy? Why is he there? Why does he have 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes? Did the disciples steal it from the boy? Did the boy offer it?

Result:
- Jesus took the bread n fish, gave thanks and distributed to the crowd as much as they wanted
- there were 12 baskets filled with pieces of the 5 barley loaves left... Q: wow, leftovers? awww, no more fish?

so why did I bring out this story?
Well, Q: who helped Jesus in this situation?
A: not someone with lots of money... not someone who would be considered to have great authority... but simply a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish

and I'm a bit more optimistic about this story too =)... I'd like to think that the boy graciously offered all he had to help out with the situation... And though Andrew doubted and questioned how will this small amount of offer help with this big task?!?!?.... Jesus saw that the boy was definitely adequate for doing God's work, that he had a willing spirit, giving up all his food, to help feed the five thousand! And it turned out better than expected!

so in conclusion... I think we do tend to see ourselves n others as not fit for a certain role... and sometimes I think it is possible that a person may not be ready and lack something... but as Hilda reminds us, "He supplies everything we lack when we ask Him." I'm sure God can take something that's imperfect and make it perfect! And when it comes to changing people from imperfect to perfect... we got to allow Him to make the change.
One final note, the things on God's checklist in finding a helper may not be the same things we think it might be! =)

[ // did I make any sense at all in this entry???... well, hope it cleared up my point of view... and mon! May God prepare you for next year's yccf, providing you with all that you need and continually shaping you to be the leader for His coming works! Alrite, I'm out.. wait not out yet...// ]

Since my example isn't that strongly related to leaders...I asked a friend about my question, "does God choose perfect ppl to lead?" and he gave me 2 bible characters to think about!

- two of the greatest leaders of Israel were David and Solomon, yet both had inherent flaws... David commits murder n adultery, and Solomon had 1000 wives/concubines

yup, so something for us all to think about... =) moooo!

[ // okay... now I'm out // ]