Dispatch № 025 · Oct 24, 2026
Nobody Picked Them
Jesus built his church with fishermen, a tax collector and a few guys nobody would have chosen. He still works that way.
Think about who Jesus picked.
Peter, Andrew, James and John were fishermen. They smelled like it, too. Matthew collected taxes for Rome, which made him about the least liked guy in town. Simon was a zealot, the kind of man who wanted Rome gone by force. Put him and Matthew in the same boat and you've got a problem.
None of them had gone to the right schools. In those days, the best students got picked by a rabbi early. If you weren't picked, you went home and learned the family trade. So these guys had already been passed over. They were back at work.
And that's where Jesus found them. Mending nets. Sitting at a tax booth. He walked up and said, "Follow me."
They weren't impressive later, either
It would be nice to say they got sharp fast. They didn't.
They argued about which one of them was the greatest. They missed the point of his stories. Peter told Jesus he'd never leave him, then denied knowing him three times before morning. When Jesus was arrested, almost all of them ran.
If you were building a team to change the world, you would not pick this one. And you'd probably cut them after the first year.
But Jesus didn't cut them.
Then look at what happened
A few weeks after the cross, Peter stood up in Jerusalem and preached. About 3,000 people believed that day. The same guy who couldn't stand up to a servant girl by a fire.
Later, he and John got hauled in front of the religious leaders. Acts 4:13 says the leaders "saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men." And they were amazed. Then they "took note that these men had been with Jesus."
That's the only explanation the Bible gives. They had been with Jesus.
Within a few decades, the message those men carried had spread across the Roman Empire. Most of them died for it. And here we are, about 2,000 years later, still reading what they wrote down.
So what about us
Paul put it plainly in 1 Corinthians 1:26: "Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth." God picked the foolish things to shame the wise. He still does.
I think a lot of us quietly disqualify ourselves. Not smart enough. Too much history. Too ordinary. Nobody's ever looked at me and thought, "That guy's going to matter."
The disciples would understand. Nobody looked at them that way either. Nobody but Jesus.
You don't need to be impressive. You need to be with him. Time in his Word. Time in prayer. Showing up when you don't feel ready. He does the rest, the same way he did with a handful of fishermen.
Try this this week: Think of one thing you've told yourself you're not the right person for. Serving, leading, sharing your faith with a friend. Pray about it, then take one small step anyway.
"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise." — 1 Corinthians 1:27