I Am Chosen
It feels good to be chosen, because it communicates to us that we are wanted. It communicates that not only are we welcomed, but we are wanted. It creates a sense of belonging. Psychologists since the 1950s have said that a sense of belonging is a fundamental human need. You feel like you belong when you know you have been chosen. As followers of Jesus we have been chosen, not for salvation, but for a vocation, for a mission to bear the image of God in the world. We live in a wolf-world and Jesus isn't sending us out to be a better version of the wolf. Jesus is sending us out like sheep among wolves. Jesus is sending us out to be distinctly different, a chosen and holy people. It is through our holiness, our distinctiveness, that we fulfill God's call for us.