People in mid-life and later go through periods of time when they wonder if the life they have lived and the things they have done have made any impact on others. Many may feel that they have not been successful because they have never gained great riches, fame or championship status. Those of us who have experienced this look back and wish we could have ou youth back so that we could make different decisions, or do things more significnatly. We call this mid-life crisis. Such thinking prompts otherwise reasonable people to go out and change careers, buy motorcycles, and even look for new, dangerous and exciting relationships.
Younger people who are still in school are looking ahead and wondering will what I do make a difference; will I succeed? Will I be fulfilled? Will I achieve great things or accopmplish anything significant?
I read a number of great quotes that speak to this line of thinking:
God does not so much need people to do extraordinary things as much as God needs people who do ordinary things extraordinarily well. William barclay.
The place where God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet Frederick Buechner.
God has not called me to be successful, he has called me to be faithful. Mother Theresa.
These are three examples of people who have come to peace with their lives and understand that being successful depends on attitudes of passionate faith and sober judgement of self rather than accomplishments.
When a person is passionate about their faith, they will be people who do not consider themselves to be extraordinary people but people who do ordinary things and by faith and the power of the indwelling spirit do those things extraordinarily well.
Consider mother theresa for example. She has never been a person who sought recognition as an extraordinary person. Her philosophy of life is to be faithful (that is to say passionate in living out her faith) rather than successful. Her deepest gladness or passion is not in recognition but in seeing the needs of people met.
How about you? God has given you a faith for which he wants you to be passionately excited. He wants you to care for it, water it, grow it, share it and use it to meet the needs of others. God wants you to be faithful
The trouble today is that most people in our culture are consumed with comparison to others; wondering what others think about them and how they stack up in comparison. Am I as successful; as pretty or handsome; as rich; as famous; as accomplished.
A.C. Green is a two time nba champion, ncaa all american and a high school allstar. His autobiography is entitled "victory: principles of championship living." early on in life he learrned an important lesson as the child of devoted Christ ian parents. He dreamed of becoming a winner in professional sports. But when Jesus Christ became his perrsonal Lord and saviour he realized that God had given him a gift much larger than the talent to play basketball. To him champions are people who reach their true purpose in life.
I think that is what the apostle paul would say. Listen to Romans 12:1-8
I would suggest to you that there are two important issues at stake here as it relates to the stewardship of faith.
Another way of putting this is to say develop realistic expectations. On the one hand come to learn and accept that you are not more important or better than any other person - simply different. On the other hand know that by faith in Christ , you can do anything God has designed for you to do and you can be anything God has designed you to be.
Therefore Paul says "don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to. Barclay translates it as: don't have a mine proud beyound what it should be but a mind directed towards wisdom as God has given you a measure of faith.
Peterson translates it: don't misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing goodness to God ...the only accurate way to understand yourself is by what God is and what God does for us, not by what we area or what we do for him.
The contemporary english version read: don't think that you are better than you really are. Use good sense and measure yourself by the amount of faith God has given to you
The greeks had an expression that is familiar to us. "man, know thyself." It is true that we cannot go far in life until we have made an honest assessment of who we are and what we are capable of doing. As Christians, we must come to acknowledge that we can do nothing without the grace of God or to put it differently, all we do is dependant upon God 's grace.
Listen again to what AC Green says:
As much as I love basketball and work hard to excel in it, I have to say that the greatest victories in life are not scored on the basketball court or playing fields. Winning on the court is great but it leaves many players miserable in otgher areas of their life. A true champion achieves his or her life's purpose as designed by God .
That is who we are. We are God s workmanship created for good works that we should walk in them. We are created in God 's own image and we belong to God .
By the worlds mold, we may or not be champions or world leaders or celebrities. But by God s standards which come through a renewed mind, we are worth more than the richest person in the world. We are more successful than the greatest business person in the world and we are greater champions than the greatest athlete in the world.
Use sober judgement about who you are. Try some common sense.
Pray that your gladness may intersect the worlds needs.
Most Christ ians devote 98 percent of their time and resources passionately going after the world and its rewards. At best, the measure of our faith in God 's promises is 2%.
Paul lists a few of what we would call charismata or spiritual gifts. His point is that the church is a body. Each part is inextricably tied to the others and each part is neither more or less necessary than the others.
And so even those areas of giftedness and service which are backstage types of gifts are everybit as important as those front stage types. Becaues your charismata or gift of grace is serming or mercy, that fact does not make you less important than the perrson whose gift is leading or administering.
The point is that by paassionate faith, give your entire self to using the gifts and fulfilling the calling God has given to you.