Underestimated

I am of the opinion that most people who don’t know me, underestimate me. That’s okay. I had a really good friend named Cliff Schimmels and people were always underestimating him. The Chinese used to say to me, “Dr. Cliff looks so stupid, but he is really, really smart. Big surprise.” Cliff didn’t mind. He knew who he was.

Each morning, rain or shine, heat or cold, I walk four miles in our neighborhood. Four miles. It’s a very long walk and it takes me about 80 minutes to complete. In the recent extreme heat, I try to get outside by 6 AM. By the end of the four miles, I am completely drenched and look like I need medical attention. Not glamorous. Not hip. And definitely not attractive.

There are people on my walk – mostly women – who ask to join me. I don’t know why. But it happens often. One gal said, “Kerry, you’re better than a therapist!” She never has gotten my name right. But one of the things these women tag-alongs all have in common: they make assumptions about me that are always a bit demeaning. “You know Sherry, if you ate a little less you wouldn’t have to diet. Moderation is key. Moderation in all things.” Who said I was dieting?!?

But one of my favorite underestimations happened last week. I was walking when a woman in her late 50s decided to join me. She talked nonstop about her marriage  breakup, her financial hardships, and her health. But she had this annoying habit of “warning” me about every crack in the sidewalk, every uneven surface, every twig in the way – I mean it was like she thought I was senile. “Watch out there!” “Oops! Be careful!” “Oh, pay attention, the sidewalk is a bit uneven here.” And each time I got more and more annoyed. First of all, I don’t know this woman. Secondly, I have walked this sidewalk almost every single day for six years. I’d say I’ve walked it over 2,000 times and I know every nook and cranny. In fact, I could probably walk it blindfolded. (Please don’t make me prove that).

I came back home that day and told my husband Daryl about her “senior citizen” watch duty. It made me feel like she thought I needed a drool cup or help getting to the toilet. I know, it’s pride. Good old-fashioned, cometh-before-the-fall pride, but it was irritating.

This woman couldn’t know that I scaled the Great Wall of China five times. Or that I climbed the Walls of Dubrovnik on my 60^th birthday – 2,000 uneven steps around the old city wall – a feat that takes over three hours. She had no idea I’d hiked the Alps, dodged landmines in Kabul (both in 2003 and 2006) or that I had navigated the streets of Moscow during the fall of the USSR. I’ve avoided human traffickers in Lagos, Nigeria, escaped an attempted kidnapping  in Yekaterinburg, Russia. There’s nothing on my face that says I crossed the Soviet Union twice on the Trans-Siberian Railroad alone: once Beijing to Finland and once Finland to Beijing. I survived Chernobyl. A bombing at London Heathrow, being strip-searched in Tel Aviv and being spit on, rocks thrown at me, and being mauled by curious crowds all across China.

No, you wouldn’t know those things by looking at me because in all honesty, it wasn’t in my nature to do any of these things on my own. It was only through God’s calling and His anointing that I could ever have accomplished anything. I’m a lover of creature comforts and I’m a homebody that doesn’t like to travel. So, when people look at me and underestimate me, they are actually seeing who I really am and what I am incapable of doing. When the Bible says that God uses the weak things of the world to confound the strong, my heart is thrilled! When God promises to use the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, I rejoice. Because in reality I am exactly what those women see – a big old dumb donkey girl. And that’s fine because God doesn’t need the brightest, or the best, or the most fit, or the smartest, or most talented. He doesn’t even look for those things. God looks for the weak – those who won’t touch His glory. He searches for the brokenhearted and yielded individual who raises weak hands toward a loving Father and says, “Here I am Lord. Please use me. I want to take Your Glory to the nations.” And He hears that cry and moves in ways I myself often cannot believe. God takes my breath away.

David and Karen Maines wrote a series of children’s books in the 1970s called Tales of the Kingdom. In the series there is a very important event that happens called “The Ring of Fire.” In the allegory, broken and scarred people walk around their everyday lives doing their menial tasks, but when it’s time for the Great Celebration and all enter the Ring of Fire, as they cross through the flames, they become who they REALLY are. So Scarboy becomes a dashing warrior and Pig Girl becomes a beautiful Princess and Cripple Girl becomes the Daughter of the King. I thank God for His Ring of Fire that when I enter into that right relationship with Him, I become who I was meant to be, whether others see it or not, I know and am grateful for His choosing me, the least of these. Peace.

I Corinthians 1:26-29, “For consider your calling, brothers and sisters, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the insignificant things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no human may boast before God.” – Isn’t that wonderful?

— Teri