We were talking about university courses and hopes for the future, the way two young adults reaching the end of their high school years do. He, already finished, me with a few more months to go. Both interested in psychology and history, both with a love of story telling.
I asked him if he would be interested in studying theatre, he said no.
No, he wasn't interested in a career that may land him the spotlight, though he did point out that it more likely wouldn't.
Why, I asked, intrigued that he should not wish to do something he seemed to enjoy so much.
As he explained his preference for a harsher, much less exalted career path, one thing he said stuck out to me:
"think it's what God wants me to do"
The paths he's contemplating are harsh, they take a lot out of a person and demand that he give of himself for the sake of others. Give of his time, of his energy, of his emotions, of his care and of his compassion. They are jobs that demand sacrifice with few of the rewards that the world recognizes as worthy.
Yet he's willing to do them, wants to do them. Because they would help others, and because he thinks it's what God wants him to do.
How crazy is that?
Yet Jesus promises that even if our left hand doesn't know what our right hand is doing - God knows.
Jesus promises that in Heaven, those who put themselves last will be considered among the first.
Jesus promises that those who give their all for Him will be raised up alongside Him as a Child of God.
The world tells us to think big, to think better, to think neon lights and your name in the headlines. It tells us to think nice house, nice car, nice kids, nice job, lots of money - it's the American dream, isn't it?
The Bible tells us that all that is like mist, here one minute gone the next. The Bible tells us that God's wisdom chooses the foolish of this world to blind the those who think they are wise, the weak to show the strong how helpless they are, the poor to show the rich how empty they are. The Bible tells us that the small, the last, of this world, is the glorified in Heaven.
The Bible tells us that only with God does anything have meaning, because that is what will last for an eternity.
But how easy it is to forget that. How easy it is to focus ourselves on the immediately obvious, the world, and forget about the still, small voice.
Do I write to glorify God? To serve God? To give of myself to others so that God may be known? Do my actions honour the Man who knelt on His last night to wash the feet of His friends?
Rarely, so rarely. So often I write that others my see my skill, my talent, but I over-estimate it, and I forget the source of this gift. So often I act so that others can see how good I am, forgetting the only good in me is the good God has put there.
I get caught in the lie of the world. The lie that says "big" is the acclaim of fellow man, not the service for God. That "big" is success in the here and now, not the life spent worshipping God.
So if we want to think big, think really, really big, we need to stop thinking worldly and start thinking God.
Because if shooting for the moon lands you among the stars, then shooting for God lands you in Heaven.
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