Being asked to Zig when the World says Zag

It’s a real counter-cultural thing that Paul writes about.

Sacrifice isn’t something we celebrate a lot, is it?  Humility isn’t loudly honored either.  Making oneself less than the station into which we belong isn’t the stuff of large marketing campaigns.  No, it usually goes the other way today and I would dare to say has probably always gone that way.  This is not the way however, that Jesus did it nor the way that God rewards.

Making ourselves larger than we are, through our possessions or our job or our social influence (online and otherwise) isn’t the example we’re given through Christ.  When you think about it, his story and the magnitude of his influence put everything we accept today about importance on its head.

Here was a man who didn’t try and buddy up to the important people of the day.  It was actually quite the opposite.  He spent a lot of his time showing their hypocrisy and how wrongly they operated.  He really ticked them off.

Here was a guy that didn’t build a large following before embarking on his mission.  He didn’t need thousands or even hundreds of followers before striking out.  He chose twelve and not twelve shining stars of the day.  Twelve guys, mostly fishermen, whose ranks included one he knew, would betray him.  He was born a carpenter but his job was to spread the good news by any means and in every place necessary.  He put his mission, his purpose, above himself.  Who does that anymore?

I won’t say no one, but it’s entirely too rare that we hear about them.  No, the people who humble themselves, going about the work God puts before them here on earth don’t garner headlines.  They don’t get attention and if they do the next scandal or extravagance or success story quickly takes precedence.  So what’s the use, why do it?

The world would say there is no use.  The world would say you’re wrong to humble yourself and that by humbling yourself you doom any good you thought you set out to do.  But here’s the kicker; God isn’t calling us to do the things of the world.  God is calling us to carry out the purpose he put us here to carry out and to do it today.  This will require sacrifice.  This will require humility and this may mean we die uncelebrated for all our good works, perhaps in scorn for never achieving much as the world measures it.

And for this we will be assured of our place in heaven because we put God’s will above the will of the world.  Our impact will not be as large as Jesus’s was but we will be able to count ourselves as one of his followers and someone who continued the movement and spoke the truth he did so many years ago.

Let me just confess and say I am NOT good at this.  I really look for validation.  I am in no way chasing greatness but I fall far short of being satisfied with my humble place.  If you’re like me a little bit and you struggle with your purpose I hope this helps.  Please share it with anyone you think might need to hear these words.

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