Abara abracadabra. I wanna reach out and grab ya

For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? 1 Corinthians 4:7 (NIV)

Listen to What Makes You So Special – He Said

I’m a self-made man… and it shows. It shows in the way I treat my wife when she asks me to go grocery shopping with her and I roll my eyes. It shows when I speak to others with a condescending attitude. It shows in my posture in church when I appear aloof, lost, and bored. I’m a self-made man… in need of repair.

God reminded me of this last Sunday when the pastor disrupted my daydreaming by asking, “What do you have that you did not receive?” He has to be quoting the Apostle Paul, I thought. Only Paul or Yogi Berra would say such a thing. But at that moment God spoke to me. Not in that still small whisper made famous by the prophet Elijah or Saint Augustine, but in the voice of a 70’s rock star. God (sounding a lot like Steve Miller), said, “Abara abracadabra. I wanna reach out and grab ya.”

I looked down at my pants and as I fumbled to turn off my motion-activated iPod, God whispered (and this time in that still small voice). “Oh, and by the way, Eddie, what makes you so special?”

I didn’t have an answer. Not for my smugness or my selfish heart. Certainly not for my cavalier attitude toward worship. All I could mumble in return was, “I dunno, Lord. I guess nothing does.”

In his letter to the Christians in Corinth, Paul warned: “Why do you boast as though you did not receive everything from God?” (The Eddie Translation). The Corinthians thought their importance, position, and power was the result of their efforts. But it wasn’t. All they had and were, came from God.

What makes you special? Is it your education, life experiences, or physical abilities?

Last night I asked several writers what made them special. Here are a few answers: “I perspire but I don’t sweat… I have a unique voice… My message is different from anything you’ve ever heard…I’m a child of God and brother to the King.”

Bingo: Divinely created and a member of the Royal Family.

So… what makes you so special? God and His Son alone. Feeling unloved or loved too much by yourself? Ask God to reach out and grab ya. He’ll make you special in the ways that matter.