Looking beyond the obvious

I've always been quiet, but I'm not shy. I don't say much sometimes, but that's not because I lack confidence. So many times throughout my life, however, my natural tendency not to talk in people's faces or to push myself to fit in with the 'in-crowd' has left me on the side lines. I had a conversation with someone when I was a teenager about celebrity Christianity. Some people go out of their way to mix in the 'right' circles to make sure that they are first on anyone's list for anything - to comment, to speak, to be known.... 


I don't want to be one of those people (otherwise I would just become one of those people I get frustrated with) but I also don't want to be overlooked. Why do we so often take the easy route and go with what is jumping up and down in our face rather than look beyond the obvious to see what is happening behind, and at the sides, and below, and above? God's love and empowerment stretches much wider, much higher, much deeper than what we can see straight ahead, yet too often we look at who or what is straight there instead of turning our heads. 


In Kolkata a lot of the work was about empowering those people on the margins - those people who are overlooked by society as society progresses without them. The New Hope School's vision was not to bus in the best teachers from outside but to enable those with skills within the community who would be overlooked by society generally to teach. These teachers from the community were helping to enable the children to go to high school at a higher grade than they were expected to. The leadership are not looking for elitism or for those who shout the loudest or for those who are part of the 'in crowd' but are looking to empower those who are so often overlooked - the children and the women who live on the edge of a symbol of the 'progression' of India (the IT district - celebrated, desired, wanted). A tiny school, easily missed, in a small community, easily missed, but living out the Kingdom of God in more ways than we can possibly imagine. Real progression?