At the end of Paul’s letter to the Roman believers he takes some time to write specifically about some people who impacted their world with the gospel. He’s careful to name names and point out godly traits that meant something to him. You see, Paul had it tough at times, but God always provided him with people who were a bright light along a dark path. These were people who encouraged him with their lives. For example he wrote about those who “risked their necks for my life” (16:4). I find that a fascinating statement. Or how about “the first convert to Christ in Asia” (16:5 [i.e., the first Asian Christian]). This was a believer who risked everything, refusing to follow the crowd of his national heritage. He mentions those who understood his suffering because they shared a prison cell with him because of their faith (16:6). He writes about the one “who worked hard in the Lord” (16:12). And then he tenderly remembered an unnamed woman “who has been a mother to me” (16:13). Can you imagine being that woman; she goes down in history as Paul’s surrogate mother. That’s just beautiful.

These were not Superman (-woman) believers, they were common, ordinary, everyday, what we would call “blue collar” Christians. This is what the church is made up of. What’s special about the people of God is not their heritage or their clothes or their bank accounts or their transportation or their house; no, what’s special about God’s family is their sacrifice for the sake of the gospel.

This is the church we should strive to be. We are different people, from all walks of life, with all types of stories to tell, who eat at different fast food joints, and live in all types of houses, driving all shapes, sizes and colors of vehicles, but what we do have in common is the gospel of Jesus Christ. That gospel will completely and irreversibly change people forever.

Think about the people in your life and how they’ve shaped you spiritually. God uses so many different colors and so many different shapes of brushes to paint the portrait of His grace on the canvas of creation. I want to encourage you to write down (as Paul did) the people in your life whom God has used to encourage you in your walk of faith. And don’t just write their names but also write down beside their names what it is in their lives that God used to help you. And then, write them a note of thanks telling them what characteristic in their life encouraged your walk in the Lord for the sake of the gospel.

Grace & Peace,