Purpose

Famous & Faithful

As I’ve previously written, Nicole Richie once quipped that it was only in America that you could become famous for being famous. Fame – once the province of actors and athletes (and previously artists and scientists) – has come to the masses. And it’s not just in America! A study released last year showed that 54% of 16 year-olds in the United Kingdom indicated that their future career plans were to “become a celebrity.” Perhaps even more disturbing, 20% of these teens indicated that they would accomplish this goal by being a contestant on a reality show.

 

An infatuation with fame wasn’t always so defining. Teddy Roosevelt once stated that it was “better to be faithful than famous” and many would agree that he had the equation right. After all, few care if their friends are famous when they find themselves in need. Similarly in a good marriage it’s our spouse’s faithfulness and not their renown that is the focus of our concern. Faithfulness is often what distinguishes a good employee from bad, a reliable friend from an acquaintance, and a celebrated spouse from a despised one. Unlike fame, there seems to be a dearth of faithfulness in our culture.

 

The irony for the Christian is that God desires faithfulness and fame. Faithfulness in this life, and fame in the next.  And it’s our faithfulness in this life that secures our fame in the next.

 

This is a hard equation to master. After all, we tend to think that as long as we aren’t doing anything “bad” we’re doing what God wants. God, however, doesn’t just call us to “not do bad,” He calls us to do His will. It’s in doing His will, in doing the best things as opposed to just the good ones, that acclaim in Heaven is achieved. Additionally, the  greater our eternal fame, the more crowns we have to lay at His feet. In other words, the more that we are able to honor Him – for eternity.

D.L. Moody, when hearing the news of his granddaughter’s birth, telegraphed back, “May she become famous in the kingdom of Heaven. [That] is the prayer of her grandfather!” That should be the prayers for not only our progeny, but for ourselves as well. We should pray that we would faithfully live out God’s calling in this life, that we would obey His Word, love His children, and do His bidding, so that in the next life, our renown would be great. Not for our own sake, but for the sake of His glory, and His eternal fame.

 

Who do you know that lived faithfully in this life in order to achieve fame in God’s kingdom?

Continue Reading

Hope

Do a Little Dance

The book of James has long been a favorite of mine. I credit that to my dad who, when I was in 6th grade and had finished all the AWANA books that our church offered, encouraged me to memorize it – from start to finish.  And I did. I remember that day when I started with Chapter 1, verse 1, and recited all the verse through Chapter 5, verse 20. It took a lot longer than the typical “memory verse” time.

Another reason I love the book is because it’s so encouraging for those that are suffering. Although my life has been very blessed, we all suffer in big or small ways. Last year when my heart broke in ways that I never anticipated, the call to persevere was very dear to me.  Knowing that the trials we were going through did not catch God by surprise and that He was using them to bring about His purposes was sometimes the motivation we needed to, as my mom would say “keep on plugging.” Sometimes the reason you keep putting one foot in front of the other is because you know that God is leading.

Yet, sometimes I focused so much on getting through the trials, that I neglected to remember how James begins his discourse  on them. He writes “Count it all joy…” According to J.P Louw and E.A. Nida’s “Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament“, the word joy used here is often expressed idiomatically. So rather than saying the word “joy” the author uses a phrase to describe what joy is.  What we read as “joy” here could be read as “my heart is dancing.” Which seems incongruous when you consider the subject matter. When we are going through pain and suffering, it’s often our hearts that are the heaviest.  Even physical pain can seem inconsequential in comparison to discouraged hearts.  How can we expect our heart to dance when the cries of pain are overwhelming? 

However, when I thought of my nieces I began to understand a little bit of how this might be. Like most young children, there are a  lot of things that they don’t know how to do, but one thing that they do know how to do is to dance. It’s not overly rhythmic and they don’t know any moves, but if there’s dancing to be done, they are willing participants. They mimic those that are already dancing, or they make up their own routine. They don’t even need music. They dance simply because they can, and they do so without consideration for all the reasons they should not.

In similar ways, our hearts can be dancing even when trials surround us. We can dance because while the noise of our pain may be loud, the music of our Father’s love is louder still. We dance because we know that the last song will be one of triumph as our King comes to claim His bride. And we dance because we know that this trial that we are experiencing will not last forever, but it will be used for His purpose.

So we teach our hearts to dance, without music and without knowing the moves. We do so without consideration for all they reasons we shouldn’t, because we know that  as believers the Reason we should is greater than any temporary condition of pain.

Now it’s your turn – How do you teach your heart to dance in the midst of painful circumstances?

Continue Reading