So after just posting on my tiredness and potential burnout with the worship team, I come back from lunch with Becky to find this amazing blog post sitting in my Feedlounge reader. The author is a pastor from Texas named Matt Chandler, and he’s part of The Resurgence blog (which also includes Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill in Portland, OR Seattle).
Titled Alpha Males and the Messiah Complex, it speaks very directly into my heart today. An excerpt:
The story in John 4 about the Samaritan woman always stirs my soul. The piece that always shocked me was Jesus’ confession to his disciples that he was tired. I never think of Christ in these terms. The scriptures say he was tired, so he sat down and told the disciples to go on into town and get lunch. I try to imagine their conversation as they walked on into town “This guy can calm the seas and feed five thousand people, but he needs us to go get him a freaking sandwich?” It seems like the only alpha male I’ve ever read about that doesn’t have a messiah complex is the actual Messiah. I think about how often we get tired but pretend like we’re not, pushing on through like we’re some kind of superman, cape waving in the wind, feeling no pain or fatigue. Not Jesus. When he hits the wall he confesses it to his crew and sits down for a bit.
Wow, that challenges me. Now that I think about it, I believe I posted a link to a message he gave where he talked on this same subject. Sure enough, there it is. Well, I needed to hear it again.
[...] Matt’s first post is entitled, “Alpha Males and the Messiah Complex,” is sure to turn heads. Chris from The Hubbs has quoted Matt, [...]
Mars Hill Church is in Seattle.
Duh, what was I thinking? Thanks for the correction.