A BEAUTIFUL HEART

This past Monday night, I watched “The Apprentice” on NBC.   I find “The Apprentice” to be a very captivating show, but I also have learned quite a bit watching it.  Like Mark Burnett’s other very popular show (“Survivor”), “The Apprentice” certainly has its share of the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Last Monday night’s show?  I’d entitle that one, “The Ugly”!

Most of the participants on “The Apprentice” don’t look like the crowd I hung with in high school.  (I was NOT part of the cool crowd.  Ever see “Freaks and Geeks?”  Well, I was one of the uncool, non-athletic geeks!)  The typical contestant on “The Apprentice” looks like a model.  Remember “Rebecca” from last season?  Do I need to say any more?  THIS year, there’s one glaring exception.  Now, I’m really going to sound like a Geek on this one because I can’t remember if his name is Brett, Brent, or Brant, but I THINK it’s Brent, so I’m going to call him that.  Brent is an attorney.  Brent is fat.  I’M fat, but Brent is a lot fatter than I am.  In the looks department, Brent makes ME look like a male model!  In the “eccentric” department, well, I’m decidedly eccentric and a bit weird but Brent WAY surpasses me.

I felt so bad for Brent this week.  On the first week, he was the LAST one picked for one of the business “teams”, but that was NOTHING compared to the garbage he endured this week.  His team rejected everything he had to say and treated him worse than I would treat an ax murderer!  Even when Brent privately confronted a tough young woman who’d been bullying him, she turned the whole story around insisting he “threatened” her and demanding he be thrown off the show.  Brent WAS one of four that Donald Trump called in to the “Board Room” to potentially be fired, but I honestly thank God he wasn’t!

Why is society SO unkind to people who are a little different?  Why do we all have to fit this “perfect” mold?  Men have to be athletic, confident but humble, very handsome, bright, but not intellectual.   Woman have to be pretty, perky, athletic but feminine, shapely, but as skinny as Calista Flockhart.  Men are supposed to love making money and women are supposed to love raising children- yet men are supposed to be perfect Dads and women are supposed to have professional jobs.  If you challenge that by being different- eccentric, or whatever, WATCH OUT!  You probably noticed that I describe myself as “eccentric” on the heading of the blog.  For many years, I was very depressed about not being athletic, about having almost no mechanical ability, and about being “uncool”.  It took me a lot of years to figure out that my strengths of being a fantastic public speaker, being very humorous, and having a gift at encouraging people are pretty important!  I’ve learned to like the way I am.

Tradition says the Apostle Paul (also called “Saint Paul”) was short, bo-legged, and had “eyebrows joined”. None of that is SPECIFICALLY in the Bible, but the Bible does indicate that although Paul was a pretty good writer, he was a terrible speaker (see 2 Corinthians 10, esp. vs. 10).  In fact, Paul is one of the greatest Christians who ever lived and was CHOSEN OF GOD FOR A GREAT MINISTRY!  

I think it’s a shame that modern Americans are SO superficial!  I’m glad God is NOTHING like that.  
“...for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (I Samuel 16:7)

I try to look “halfway decent” but I know that most of all, by and through the grace of God, I want to have a beautiful heart.