“Send the Ones Nobody Else Wants”

I was going through some old journal entries yesterday, and I came across some notes I had made last year while re-reading Dick Wills’ Waking to God’s Dream. In the section about his daily prayer practices, Wills wrote that he prays for God to “send him the ones nobody else wants.”

WOW! What a powerful prayer! Most of us – yep! I said “us” – are looking for the ones that can do the most for us, the ones who will “contribute” to our lives and our ministries.

Now, I know that somebody’s got to reach the “uppers.” Somebody’s got to carry the message to the “somebodies.”

But I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that if we aren’t willing to find the “downers” and the “somebodies-who-just-don’t-know-it-yet,” we won’t have many opportunities to reach out to anybody.

God, send me the ones nobody else wants. And help me recognize when they’re standing right in front of me. Not so I can be “relevant” or “trendy” or “emerging” or whatever. But so I can “contribute my verse” to the “powerful play” that is Your work in the world.