Listening to the morning radio show the morning DJ was in an unusually thoughtful mode musing about how watching the Chilean miner emerge from the hole in the ground made him realise they are more than numbers, more than just the 33 that had been heard about for the last 70 days.
These were people, more than that people with back stories, people with dreams and hopes, aspirations. We saw them emerge triumphantly, we saw them greet their families and loved ones, we saw them thanking God for their deliverance. We saw them smile.
They no longer represented numbers, from the moment Florencio emerged from the aptly named phoenix pod that had carried him the 15 min 2000ft journey to the surface to when foreman Luis Urzua was the final miner to reach the surface they became people, guys who had endured awful conditions to emerge victorious, triumphing over adversity.
Church leaders are in the numbers game, OK I know it was trendy a few years ago to say ‘it’s not about the numbers’ but by and large we were lying, trust me having hang around leaders for many years it’s one of the first questions asked, one of the most talked about subjects. To be honest I don’t think we should apologise for this, rather as the 33 have shown us understand that each number actually represents someone, they represent people, more than that people with back stories, people with dreams and hopes, aspirations.
I think that we need to not only embrace the numbers game but realise what it represents, it talks in Acts 17 about understanding in him (Christ) we live move and have our being, behind each number we reach we understand it is about far more than numbers, just like the miners,
Sky news as each miner came out of the ground the number ticker on the bottom of the screen changed, number 7, number 16, number 23 but as well as the number the names Franklin Lobos who had played football for Chile in the 80’s, Mario who had led the rescuers in a rousing cheer, Richard the cool dude sporting a dapper goatee beard.
I pray that God would add another 50 that he would entrust us the leaders with another 50 people, that’s the numbers I ask for but I understand I don’t know the names yet but I will. I don’t know the stories yet but I will.
I like numbers
