This question is asked whenever officers, executive board members, or Readers are elected in my branch Church of Christ, Scientist.
Has this question ever been put to you, too? Were you so surprised that you squirmed and hesitated with the answer? Or maybe right after the first or second ballot, when you heard that several votes had been cast for your name, you preferred to say right away, "Please don't elect me!"
In the Bible, the book of Judges tells how an angel was sent to Gideon to inform him that God had chosen him to free the people of Israel from their enemies.See judg. 6:7—7:22. But Gideon was frightened at being chosen. Right away he had several reasons for wanting to decline God's order. First, as he told God's messenger, he came from a poor family; and, second, he was "the least" in his father's house. God's simple and clear reply to these objections was "Surely I will be with thee." But Gideon didn't quite believe this; he still didn't feel secure. And so he carried out the first task—to destroy the altar of the idol Baal—by night, for he was afraid of his fellow citizens.
