I'm a janitor at a corporate office. I clean bathrooms, empty trash, keep the place functioning. Nobody sees me. Nobody thinks my job matters. I've internalized that - I don't think my job matters either.
Peter calls believers 'a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession.' Reading this as a person who feels profoundly ordinary was jarring. Royal priesthood? Me? The person who unclogs toilets for minimum wage?
But Peter's addressing people who were probably enslaved, marginalized, without status in their society. He's telling them: your worth isn't determined by your social position. You're royalty in God's kingdom whether Caesar recognizes it or not. Whether your boss recognizes it or not.
I started praying differently at work. Not 'God, please get me out of this job' but 'God, help me do this work with dignity, as someone you've made royal.' Weird thing: I started feeling differently about myself. I still want a different job, but I'm not ashamed anymore. I work with excellence. I talk to the people I encounter like they matter. Because we do. All of us. Peter knew something about invisible worth that the world desperately needs.
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