“After Jesus left, the ones who were following Him decided they needed to add another apostle to replace the ‘bad’ Judas.
The requirements were pretty straightforward: the replacement needed to have been with Jesus the whole time He was here, and he had to be a stand-up guy too. There were two guys the apostles came up with.
One was a guy named Matthias, and the other guy was nick-named Justus. I’m not sure how they cast lots back then. Honestly, it sounds a lot like rock, paper scissors to me. Somehow, however, they picked Matthias. He got the nod and has been in every stained-glass window from then on.
But I’ve always wondered, what happened to Justus?
We never hear about him again, yet he did all the right things, saw all the right stuff, knew who Jesus was, and was a faithful guy.
The thing is, “Justus” sounds a lot to me like “just us.” God’s plans are full of just-us kind of people. I would say probably the majority of us are just-us people, folks who don’t get capes or stained-glass windows. We just get the opportunity to do what God wants us to do without a lot of fanfare.
Even though he lost paper, rock, scissors, I bet Justus was one of those secretly incredible guys who kept on being incredible. We get the same shot. Getting passed by can feel like a great injury. But it’s not. It’s people like us who can be secretly incredible and get the most done. That’s the way Jesus’ reverse economy works. God loves the humble ones, and the humble ones often don’t make it as first-round draft picks for the jobs with big titles or positions. But they always seem to be the first-round picks for God when He’s looking for someone to use in a big way. Jesus’ message is a simple one. We all get a change to be awesome if we want to be. Not surprisingly, the way to do it best is by being secretly incredible.”
– Bob Goff, Love Does
