We've lost the word "noble" forever I suppose. Being noble is out. Ideals like "successful," "attractive," and "aggressive" are in. Today's parents cultivate consumer skills in their kids- not character- which explains why nobility has gone the way of the dinosaurs.
So I was fascinated during my Bible Study time last week when I came upon a phrase in Romans 9: 23 in which Paul compares God to a potter who uses the same lump of clay to make one pot for noble purposes, and another for purposes not so noble. It occurred to me that most of us might not recognize a noble person if God stood him or her in front of us. Many of the celebs we'd like to take to dinner would not pass God's nobility test, and many of the folks who would are utterly anonymous to us. People like that aren't very interesting to our culture.
I was reminded of one of my heroes, David Brainerd. Born in Connecticut in 1787, little Davy turned out to be a rather sickly child. Orphaned at the age of 14, he carried on despite bad genes, a serious case of tuberculosis, and a tendency to skip meals and cough blood. He was kicked out of Yale University as a young man because his views about faith were considered too radical. He tried repeatedly to be readmitted, in order to earn his credentials to be a pastor, but he was rejected every time.
Supposing him unworthy to be a real pastor, authorities suggested that David go off to minister to hostile Indians who occupied parts of New York and New Jersey. Pale and sickly and looking like anything but a frontiersman, Brainerd accepted the call and marched alone into the wilderness. Notoriously dangerous Indians quickly spotted him. Watching quietly from the thicket, they silently surrounded him with plans to scalp him when they were astonished to see him kneel to pray... and pray... and pray. They didn't know he was also notorious- for his intense prayer life.
David Brainerd won whole tribes of formerly violent Indians to Christ, but he was never considered worthy of Yale University. Some who knew his story became so disgusted with Yale that both Dartmouth and Princeton Universities were founded in honor of Brainerd. And although he died at the age of 29, the revealing journal of his prayer life was left behind to inspire other giants like Wesley, Carey, Whitefield, Edwards, Livingstone, and similar towering figures of faith for 200 years. Some of the church's most amazing leaders have confessed that the journal of David Brainerd enflamed their prayer lives.
In a glitzy culture awed by the accomplishments of Paris Hilton and Brad Pitt, David Brainerd may seem like a worthless lump of coal. But in Heaven, you can be certain he will shine like a diamond, like a man of true nobility. I have asked my Father to give me a heart like Brainerd's.
Peace. And passion.
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