4 The diseased and weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the hurt and crippled you have not bandaged, those gone astray you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought to find, but with force and hardhearted harshness you have ruled them.
Sometimes, as a kid, you get picked last. You’re the new kid on the block, and no one knows you. So the team captains pick the strong, tall, athletic-looking, and familiar faces first, before they ever consider you. You manage to find the courage to stay until the last kid is chosen, and that last kid is you. At this point, you’re on a team that has no place for you. The members of that team won’t give you the ball or include you in the game. You’re a placeholder they were required to choose. The game goes on, and while you strive to get noticed, the other kids on your team strive to keep you out of the game.
There are those among us who don’t “fit the bill.” They don’t match the character we’ve made up in our minds. They aren’t the people we would’ve chosen to be friends with, nor the ones we’d give the time of day to. We would rather be included in the successful people group. We want to be noticed by the wealthy, the fit, the family that seems to have it all together. The good-looking, well-traveled, successful ones allure us into a trance, like a moth to a flame, while we forget the more common folks.
Don’t feel bad, we’ve all done it. Our nature is to find success and try to replicate it. In business and in life, we tend to gravitate toward powerful and successful people, hoping some of their success will rub off on us. This isn’t evil in itself. What is wrong is when we single out and ignore the other side.
Our verse comes from when Ezekiel is rebuking the shepherds of Israel. The Lord is telling them they have been feeding themselves rather than feeding the flock. These shepherds have been enjoying the spoils of the sheep’s lives while neglecting them and letting them starve. He is speaking to the leaders of Israel who don’t want to deal with such lowly people at all.
Verse four is a warning to us in our time. It instructs us on what to do with the ones in our lives who aren’t picked first. We should be strengthening the weak, healing the sick, bandaging the injured, going after the ones who have gone astray, and bringing them back. We should not treat them with hard-hearted harshness or rule over them. We should be showing them the love of the Father and pointing them to Jesus.
This last Freedom semester, I led a group of men through the Freedom curriculum. When things started out, none of them looked like the kind of men I would seek out as friends. But as the classes went on, the men in that group bonded. I got to see some of them changed, renewed, and set free. Yes, most of them weren’t people I would’ve chosen as friends at first, but now, they are some of my closest friends. A part of me was like the bad shepherd in the beginning. Praise the Lord, He showed me where I was wrong. Every Sunday, I get to talk to those men and see the Lord moving in their lives. As their shepherd of sorts, I am humbled by what the Lord can do. Praise His holy name!
If you’re the one who doesn’t get picked at first in life, don’t fret. The Good Shepherd has not abandoned you, nor has He chosen to avoid you. Jesus chose some really rough characters to change the world, and those were the ones no one else would’ve picked. Jesus has a place for you in His kingdom. You are not alone or worthless. Today, let the Good Shepherd pick you up and bring you back to the flock.
John 10:28 says: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me.”
Prayer: Father, help us never exclude anyone based on how the world sees them. You chose some not-so-popular people to change the world. I pray that the love of Jesus Christ comes through all of us to the lost, the broken, the downhearted, the outcast, and the forgotten. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Let It Go 
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