Don’t Have to Be Someone to Please Somebody
Today is my birthday. I’m 36 years old, and my wife asked me this morning at breakfast what my hopes and dreams are for this upcoming year. I didn’t really know what to say.
For most birthdays, I usually have some clearly defined goals for the following year and high expectations for what I would set out to accomplish. You see, I have always been a fairly ambitious person.
I have been ambitious personally and professionally, setting high goals for personal achievement and for professional success. Growing up, I carried my keys around on a chain with the word that pretty much summed up my philosophy…excellence.
Yes, I have always been committed to doing things excellently, and that has usually translated into achievement and success. For this reason, I have usually met my goals and have always reached for my dreams.
However, something has changed for me. It’s not that I don’t have goals or dreams. It’s just that they’ve become fewer and smaller. Up until this past year, I’ve had many things I’ve wanted to pursue personally and have had big visions of reward and recognition professionally.
But, most of that has really subsided. I used to enthusiastically say that I wanted to “blow a hole in history” but now am actually quite content just to scratch it. And, by scratch, I mean that I just want to be faithful to what God has asked me to do.
I’m quite sure that God wants me to be a devoted husband and father, and that He wants me to teach the Bible. I think he may want me to write about it too. But, that’s about it.
I’m not sure God wants me to be the president or a senator, a mega church pastor or national speaker, a Pulitzer prize writer or best selling author. I’m not even sure God wants me to alter history in any way.
I’m just sure that God wants me to have integrity, love my family and serve the church. That being said, I think my goals are now simply to accomplish those things.
When Stephanie asked me what my hopes and dreams are for this year, I told her that I wanted my boys to be healthy, for her to find healing, and for the church to grow deeply. Yes, I’d be happy with those goals.
I’d be quite satisfied if the cyst in my son’s neck would finally heal, if my wife would find peace after her third miscarriage, and if the church would grow deeper in their love for God and each other.
Some would say those are meager goals. But, I think they are rather ideal. Sooner or later, we all learn to let go of our ambition. Not the holy ambition to serve God and make a difference in the world but the self-centered ambition to be something.
Everybody today seems to want to be somebody. They want to be a rock star, an actor, an athlete or an entertainer. They want to be some kind of celebrity and it’s usually not because they just like the craft. No, they like the fame, the money, and the fun that comes with it.
The truth is that we’re foolish if we think that we’re something. And, we’re all so very shortsighted if we believe that striking success in this world makes any difference in eternity.
Solomon told us that fame and success are short-lived and that the world will forget us as soon as we’re gone. So, why should we care what the world thinks of us anyway?
I once heard a missionary say that we’re all a bunch of nobodies just trying to make much of somebody. And, that Somebody, of course, is God. After all, He is the only Somebody.
When people tried to make much of John the Baptist, he deflected their adoration saying that Jesus must increase and that he must decrease. By decrease, he meant that he must become a nobody.
This past year, I have been thinking about that. I’ve been wondering why we say that we have an audience of One but in reality play to everyone else. If we really believed that we have just One to please, then shouldn’t this bear out in our lives?
Pleasing God, and God alone, is something we can do very quietly and discreetly. It’s something that can be accomplished while living completely off the radar screen of this world.
It’s something that can be done without any notable achievement, any renowned victory or any special merit. It can be fulfilled without any title, trophy or talent.
That means we can bring pleasure to God and accomplish everything that He desires of us in this life as nobodies. We don’t need anyone to notice us, to admire us, or to reward us to be enormously successful in God’s economy.
For most of us, this presents a radical recalibration of our view of success. It is an enormous shift away from the self-centered priorities of this world, which tell us that we have to be something or do something to have value.
Instead, it is a significant shift towards the priorities of God, which tell us that we don’t have to do or be anything in this world to bring pleasure to the only Somebody who matters.
Saw this mentioned on FB and read it right away…thank you for saying what we need to be reminded of often…faithfulness before God is what is valuable. It came at the right time for me to really hear it!
May God continue to enable us to be faithful!
Robbie
Thanks for the comment, Robbie! God’s timing is always perfect.