I Am the Job

In the movie, Miss Congeniality, Sandra Bullock plays FBI Agent Gracie Hart. With most FBI Agents apparently being male, it’s something of a guys’ club – and in order for Hart to make it as a girl, she’s become more masculine than many of the males. She lacks a lot in the way of feminine charm (or even table manners). But she loves her job and wants to be good at it and she’s pretty comfortable being “one of the guys.”

But then a case requires her to go undercover… as a Miss USA pageant contestant… in less than a week. Teams of people are assemble to remake Gracie Hart. She’s quickly taught how to smile, how to walk. They tweeze, wax, primp. And besides all that, she’s got the other contestants to worry about and a murderer to discover and nab. It’s way outside her comfort zone, and more than once she’s ready to quit. But she can’t, because she loves her job. In one exchange with her friend and now boss, she describes that commitment in a telling phrase: I am the job. And even though her transformation from a person whose wardrobe consisted largely of sweatshirts into a polished pageant finalist was more than she thought herself capable of, her commitment to her job keeps her from quitting.

I think Gracie Hart’s difficult transformation is a pretty good example of God’s plan for you and me. He has saved us and called us to be a part of His plan. And – for the most part – we’re on board with that. But what He wants requires all of us. It requires us being remade into the people He originally made us to be. And that’s not comfortable.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age… (Titus 2:11-12)

This is what was also asked of the first Disciples. From the time Jesus was arrested until the Holy Spirit came, they pretty much hid. They were afraid they were next on the hit list. So they played it safe – much like we do. But Jesus had given them a job to do.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

It’s a big job, but – like Gracie Hart – our uncomfortable transformation is not done by our own efforts. Gracie had a team of people who had done some “extreme makeovers” before, and – as Jesus said – we have the Holy Spirit, “with power” (I think that’s actually the only way He comes!). Don’t miss that part: we’re not asked to transform ourselves, because we don’t have the power to do that. Like Gracie, we simply need to “be the job,” to follow Christ in whatever He asks of us, no matter how uncomfortable (and it doesn’t take long in His family to discover just how uncomfortable it can be, right?).

Some maybe obvious questions to ask ourselves then:

1. Jesus gave his followers a job in Acts 1:8. Are you “the job”?
2. What comfortable things, attitudes, habits, etc. are you holding onto, and how might they be keeping you from truly being “the job”?
3. How can we – as a church, as friends, as spouses, or as children or parents – encourage each other through the uncomfortable-ness of become more Christlike?