The Names We Ignore

Happy-New-Year-twelve-days-late-and-first-post-in-like-two-months

Winter break in a college town is not as sparkly and glamorous as one might think. It's actually rather dull and mundane and repetitive. Which isn't a horrible thing when one is able to sleep in until 11 every day. As a result of this boredom I've been doing some reading and stuff, and I figured the 2-7 people that read the things I randomly post would be thrilled to hear about it haha.

I've been hanging out in Romans this last week, and when I got to the end where Paul is listing all the people that he wants to give a shout out to, I was tempted to skip it, just like I'm tempted to skip every list of names in the Bible. I know, I know...but you do it too. Something about those lists just isn't appealing, unless you're trying to come up with the funniest possible name for someone's baby, then they're like a gold mine!

I digress.

I thought to myself, "Self, you are stuck here with nothing to do. You have no real reason not to read this list. Read the list." Yes, that is a summary of my basic thought pattern, except that I think it a lot faster. So I read the list. I don't know that every list is like this, but the list in Romans 16 is actually quite neat. Yes it's a bunch of names that I'll never be able to recite to you, but for every name Paul lists, he gives a reason, a characteristic of this person that made them worthy in his eyes. The following phrases are used:

"my fellow workers in Christ Jesus"

"who labored much for us"

"my beloved in the Lord"

"approved in Christ" (possibly my favorite)

"chosen in the Lord" (!!!)

I could be way off here, but if you only get one verse in the entire Bible, I think that's a pretty good way to go down. I know nothing else of Amplias, Tryphosa, or Patrobas, but that they loved and served the Lord in such a way that Paul gave them the shout out of a lifetime. Thousands of years later they are known only for the very best choice they made. We don't get anything about how they messed things up, their doubts, their insecurities, their weaknesses. They are known forever for the one important factor in their otherwise unknown lives.

Jesus Christ.

May we-and I-strive to be known for one thing only.

They followed Christ.