Be the One, Not the Nine

We’ve all heard the advice:

• Don’t buck the crowd.
• Go along to get along.
• Don’t rock the boat.

When I’m with a group of people, often the last thing I want to do is buck the crowd.

Teens are especially vulnerable to this feeling, but don’t always outgrow the need to fit in. As an adolescent, I was the “goody-two-shoes.” The one taught always to say please and thank you.  The one of whom my friends’ parents said, “If Ava is going, you can go.” No kid wants that kind of reputation—to be the one who made everyone else look bad by comparison. Kids want to fit in, not stand out.

I wonder if that’s what the nine lepers were thinking. Remember the account in Luke 17? Jesus healed ten lepers. In their joy at being healed, off they went, seemingly forgetting their Healer. Did they suffer from self-centeredness and ingratitude, or were they so focused on getting on with their new life that they were reluctant to break from the group?

Yet one man did buck the crowd. The most unlikely of the ten—a Samaritan—one whom the Jews considered to be a pagan. This pagan returned to say thank you.

What about today?

That man convicts me today. Like the nine who were healed, I am associated with the community of believers. I am a believer. I have a relationship with the living God through Jesus Christ, His Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Sadly though, also like those nine, I often ask God for things without going back to say thank you for answered prayer.

I don’t want to be like the nine. I want to be like the one. So I added another list to my prayer time. A “Thank You” list. As God provides and blesses, I move the request to a “thank you” page. My goal is to thank God daily for as long as—or longer than—I had been petitioning Him.

It’s time for me to leave the nine and join the one. How about you? Let’s buck the crowd . . . and say thank You.

Take a moment now to thank the Lord for something He granted that you had been requesting!