To God Be the Glory
It’s hard to get outside your own skin. Try as we might, there’s always a self-protecting bias that stands in the way of our seeing things the way they are. This is true all around. Often, people will tell others to smell the coffee not realizing that they, too, are biased in their opinions. People are proud to say that they do not suffer fools. The jury is still out on who the fool is. It’s similar to family. Everybody’s family is crazy. The only debate regards who’s the crazy. So, I’m trapped in my skin, and you’re trapped in yours. This is why we don’t really understand one another and why grace is the order of the day…every day.
I’m sure that I’ve never done one good thing. I say that because I believe it to be biblical. No human is just in the eyes of God, and all our works are tainted. But I hope that in the eyes of people, I’ve made some pass-worthy efforts. Any “good” deeds we achieve are always “relatively speaking.” To get a passing grade, I have to evaluate myself alongside you, and the Scripture tells us that is not wise. Comparisons of that nature are always pride-inducing or self-defeating. God doesn’t hate us for being less-than. He loves us and molds us into His image. As long as we are willing- He is able.
I won’t admit to you what I must admit to God, but, when I see the few sheaves in my hand in comparison to the great harvest field of God’s work, I, sometimes, despair. Looking back, I ran into the golden field of grain confident of a record ingathering. I found out it was not my harvest. I’m just a field hand. Having done precious little farm work, though, I know that there is never any profit if the crop remains in the field, and I have learned to be grateful for the opportunity to have assisted in God’s great work in some way. We don’t choose the ends of all our efforts, but we must live with them and commit them to God.
Then again, the preacher has to take his medicine. I’m always telling folks to do their best for God and leave the rest to Him. I’ve got to do the same. We don’t find joy- it finds us in the execution of our duties and destiny. And the results of our efforts are not always apparent. They will become so in the future, but now we see through a cloudy windowpane- our image is distorted in the smudged mirror. I used to coach kids’ sports teams, and I always asked the youngsters to play their positions, do their best and leave the game plan to me. God does the same with all of us. No one can play the whole field.
When I was a senior in high school, I had the privilege of leading my best friend to Christ in my living room on a snowy day in January. We have lived away from one another for most of the intervening years, but, now, see each other occasionally. Recently, he came through town, and we met in the parking lot of a corner gas station. We talked for a few minutes about the old days and present happenings, and then he said, “God’s been good to me.” O, the joy that floods my soul. I was there when it happened. To be a part of the eternal plan of God is the poetry of living. To God be the glory.
Sterl
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