I love the beauty of stained glass windows when the sunlight streams though. It’s always a delightful surprise when I walk into a traditional church setting and see this type of artwork. Sometimes the biblical story is immediately familiar; other times I have to puzzle out the event being celebrated. But there’s one question I’ve never thought about. “Who’s the artist?”
The stained glass artwork is on display, but the artist is totally invisible. In that sense, it’s a pure gift to our Creator. It glorifies Him alone.
If you want to be powerfully used by God, hungering for personal fame cannot be a motivating factor. Fame is a false idol within our culture, and idol worship is not something Jesus will ever bless. Becoming famous is occasionally a byproduct of our serving the Lord, but it should never be our goal.
Mother Teresa is a good example of a woman who served God in obscurity for years. Becoming famous didn’t change her calling; it merely drew people’s attention to her Father’s loving heart. He considered the people dying on the streets of Calcutta valuable, so she did too. Every other charity in India was ministering to the people who could still be helped. When you have limited resources that’s just good common sense. Save the people you can. Only Mother Teresa poured all her energy into those who were hopeless and dying.
Over the years, I’ve wrestled with this temptation—to be somebody. In my teens, I was a real spotlight grabber. After I came to Christ in college, He immediately started working in this area. Am I humble yet? Well, it’s been many years and I’ve made some progress, but pride is a dragon in my life that always needs slaying. As a Christian writer, I have to ask myself, “Am I content to have my words used powerfully by God and yet get no credit?” Am I content to be invisible?
My writing ability is a gift from Him; I will have no impact in this world for Christ unless the Holy Spirit speaks to people through my writing. Jesus can use my most idle word to transform lives, but I need to offer my gift freely.
So why do I sign my name and have a bio page? Why do this blog at all? Because I have truths to share, encouragement to give and certain people to minister to.
Take the time today to ask yourself a couple of questions. All of us seek to obey God, which means blessing other people, but what motivates you? For most of us, it’s a mixture. My second question is more diagnostic: are you content to serve and yet be invisible? To be used by our Savior to make a real difference in another person’s life but get no credit?
What if Jesus truly does receive all the glory?
Resources:
Here is a link to a You Tube video entitled “The Invisible Woman” which fits this post perfectly.
(Images by Pixabay.)
