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| Achieving for the Kingdom |
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| Since this past weekend I’ve been reflecting on three verses that have made me think a lot about the subject of achieving for God’s Kingdom. I’m writing this post to share some of what I’ve been learning in case it might be helpful for others. The verses are: Matthew 5:16
“In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
1 Peter 2:12
“Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”
2 Peter 1:5
“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;”
My three takeaways from these verses are:
There is an attractiveness to great work. This point is fairly simple to understand, but certainly worth mentioning. Its undeniable that when excellent work is done, it's attractive. Whether it’s a beautifully constructed piece of art, a well-written brief, a compelling presentation, or a well-engineered new product: good work stands out. We often just know it when we see it. In this world, the good work(s) that people do often gives them a platform to be heard. In the business world, and particularly in New York City where I live, this is incredibly important. It is very hard, if not impossible, to begin talking to your colleagues about the gospel if they don’t first respect you as a worker nor appreciate your work product. Christians need to work well, in all spheres, so to be attractive to non-believers. One last example of this is Bono. Debate his methods all you want for trying to alleviate suffering, but you can’t deny that he has created a platform to be heard by first making great music.
Great work should reflect God’s glory, and not be about ours. I think the Matthew and 1st Peter verses both drive home this point beautifully. As Christians, we should strive to produce great work, and to work hard doing it. But at the same time, we need to check our motivations and constantly question ourselves about whose glory we’re working for. As both verses point out, our good deeds and all of our work should reflect God’s glory and point non-believers to God. People should look at us and say, “Wow, I’m absolutely amazed by the distinctiveness, selflessness, and utter joy that you display both when you work and in your work product. There’s something different about you. What is it?” It is then that hopefully we can point people to God for His glory. One tip for improving in this area is to consistently pray about it. I find that while I’m working on projects and particularly when I present them or show my work to others, I need to be praying for God to squash my approval idol (which is huge) and instead pray that somehow He would get glory from the work I do.
Ultimately what “achieving” is really about. During the past several days I’ve been reflecting a good deal on 2 Peter 1:5 after hearing someone mention it in a talk this past weekend. What I’ve been spending the bulk of the time thinking about is the order in which these items are described. Now I know that this verse is actually part of a longer passage, which is incredibly rich, but I’ve just been focusing on verse 5. I’ve noticed that the order is first faithfulness, then goodness, and thirdly knowledge. Oh man, has God been working on me through the realization of that order.
Here’s the thing, because I tend to be a type A person, who's driven and likes to succeed, I often think about achieving for the Kingdom by considering how much stuff I can “get done”. Success and achievement then become things that have tangible results: leading fellowship groups, organizing service projects, consulting to existing ministries, blah, blah, blah. All of these are good things but what I’ve been thinking about recently, is that first and foremost, what God wants from me is not all these things that I do, but instead He wants my heart. He wants me to be faithful. Period. At the end of my life I realize that one of the most important questions I’ll have to answer is: Was I faithful to God? Did I spend time getting to know Him and develop a rich relationship with Him? Was I faithful in the small things? Starting here is huge and has been wonderful for me to refocus on because of my results-oriented tendencies and my big picture thinking. Ultimately, real achievement, and real success for Christians is remaining faithful to God. It all starts there. It's only after the faithfulness that we are to add goodness, and then after goodness comes knowledge. I also love this distinction as well, but will save that for another post because this is getting long.
So to sum up: As Christians, we should work hard and hope that our work is attractive to others, but that attractiveness should point to God and give Him glory. And ultimately we should always remember the gospel - that it's not what we do anyway that saves us, but only what He has done for us. Many of us, motivated by this gospel, want to do big things for God, but we must remember that what He cares most about is our overall faithfulness, and whether we know Him and are faithful in all of the small things. |
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| To add a comment to "Achieving for the Kingdom" |
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| March 15, 2007 |
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Justin - This is a great blog, and those of us who know you can see this ethic played out clearly in your everyday actions...to me, this is an important clarification to make about doing "the Lord's work." That is, doing excellent work furthers the Lord's work when it is done from a heart that desires to glorify him fully. My first voice teacher used to tell me that "good work speaks," and I think that excellent work is immediately noticeable and is universally appreciated for the contribution it makes toward society, etc. That's why it is even more important to do good work out of a heart that seeks to glorify GOD, not self - so when, like the scriptures you mentioned indicate, nonbelievers notice the excellence of our work, it magnifies not the work, but the motive behind it. PS - how can you chug this stuff out so FAST? You're way more prolific than I am. Perhaps it's your commitment to excellence..... |
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| March 16, 2007 |
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Justin - i really enjoyed reading this blog - interesting insights and thanks for sharing. i particularly enjoyed the verses you posted from peter 2:12. i think that as christians, we should always be cognizant of our actions so that we can set an example to others and hopefully impact them in a way that they too would follow Christ's footsteps. i know that doing good deeds is not enough to truly be "saved" - but i think it's a great starting point for people to begin to know and appreciate who christ really is... thnx! |
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| March 16, 2007 |
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Thanks Christie for the kinds words. The key to pumping stuff out so fast is just taking all regard for proper grammer and spelling and throwing it out the window! How's that for commitment to excellence? Hopefully I'll improve the more I blog. Anyway, I liked your writing about doing "the Lord's work" and I think putting it in quotes is appropriate as too many people think doing God's work means you have to be working in full-time ministry. I'm thankful for you pointing out that just doing excellent work furthers the Lord's work when it is done for the purpose of glorifying God. I agree fully. |
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| March 16, 2007 |
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Justin, fabulous blog. Thanks for sharing all you're learning and being a good example too. Definitely for us type A folks, its key to remember it's not about me, or how I perform, what I accomplish. It's how can I place my faith in God and what He is doing through and in us.. Looking forward to your next entry :) |
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| March 17, 2007 |
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It's taking me a while to respond. And I definitely don't think I can respond fully, as I'd like to. I have to admit perhaps where I am is unlike most people who've responded. Your blog is fine, and I agree with everything you've said. But probably because I'm a woman, I would say it a little differently, but I do not disagree. So here's my limited response, as promised.
What gets me the most about God, without fail, is that He genuinely loves me so well and knows me best and truly wants me to be all that I ought to be--which He ought to know, because He made me. I have never met anyone who can do any of that, let alone all. I don't particularly label myself a type-A. I sort of know what they are, have seen them, and can identify with them in some ways. Sure I have broken the school record in junior high, been awarded at graduation, given cum laude, honors diploma, accepted by an ivy league, a champion at ex temporaneous speaking competitions, but I never really identified myself as such. Truth be told, when I became a Christian and began to examine all my motives, it became very clear my achievements and hard working mentality was entirely based on the desire for security, identity, ego, and pride. Security in the identity that I am successful, unlike any other, brilliant, and incomparably unique. Which ties in the ego and obviously pride. This desire goes away immediately in the face of the Gospel. This desire never goes away except for the Truth that God loves me unconditionally, that I am unique, utterly loved, and secure in His character--that is merciful, faithful, sovereign, awesome, that He never breaks promises, never does anything hypocritical, never says anything He does not mean, promises he cannot keep. That everything He says He accomplishes, that His intent is pure. That He is One Who knows me entirely, loves me completely, to the point of dying for me on the shameful cross, which I deserve, and yet He was never one to exploit me, be with me when it looks good for Him, or when I achieve and shine like a star, which I was told what I was like in my old church. Instead, He truly wants the very best, for my sake, because He knows how I am made and what I am meant to be. (I did not address other facets of God for the reason that this is not exactly related to the topic at hand, but I want to mention that God is also Fearful, He rebukes and disciplines the true children of God, and He intends to burn our dross and make our faith like pure gold, etc.)
Having said that, one would think the understanding that out of that love and gratitude for God I should achieve even more than before would relatively easily facilitate further achievement for His Glory, or that out of the utter abandonment to God, the desire to be with Him and Him forever, should help me to discard everything that would easily entangle--ie. sin, laziness, distractions--and live for Him. But it has not been quite so. This is where I'm afraid my resonse isn't quite complete at the moment. Apparently I still haven't figured it out thoroughly yet. I know the immediate things to do--being faithful at the small things, giving all of what I've got, not for me anymore, but for what He has done for me and what He wants me to be. The immediate challenges of seeing how this world exploits, exalts the mighty, the able, but tramples on the needy, the humble, often propels me to rebel against the "standard" response of excellence. I see self-preservation hiding behind work-aholism. Pride and ego's absolute presence. Not to mention greed, selfish ambition, and hypocrisy. Even in the church. On the other side of things, in addition to rebellion to the ways of the world, I also have had trouble within the church. I particularly despise any sign of people treating some better than others just because of appearances, be it success, beauty, youth, race, economic or social class, anything. I don't like how the world goes for success, how the church esteems success, and when I really think about Jesus and ask him about these things, He always seems to point to the sparrow and the lilly of the valley, which only makes me want to be with Him even more. But it has not answered my questions, really.
I suspect the disconnect may be that it isn't all that easy, even knowing what I know, as said above, to really live and work and achieve for God, out of a pure heart, really for His glory. But I think it must be emphasized, as you have, that I suspect it really isn't as much what we do, but who we are, who we become. I suspect many in Heaven will be applauded by Christ, people we will never notice here on earth. But those have really run the good race, fought the good fight, finished the race, and obtained that crown, may not at all have exhibited any achievements or success or good works, as we are prone to recognize. In the meantime, though, I guess I better do a good job on modeling my Risk Based Capital. Not out of guilt, of course. However, my priority seems to be more and more out of sync not only of the world, but also of the church sometimes it seems. Whether it really ought to be so is not really my biggest concern. My biggest concern is whether I have failed God because I didn't focus more on achievements and success.
All of these things being said, I know our Redeemer has finished all the work on the cross. The process of redemption is ongoing, but our sin has already been paid, crucified; we just need to redeem what's already bought, with a high price. The road to achievement in the Lord has been long and arduous for me. For some reason, I'd rather be a doorkeeper in my Father's house, than to achieve like I used to, or, alas, I'm called to do more than that, for His Glory. I will certainly get back to you, when I have figured out the second half of my story, when things come to pass. Forgive me if, for the lack of time, or coherence, this is not very clear. I am not entirely clear on this either. Perhaps I won't be, until I see Him. But hey, this neither makes nor breaks our seal of salvation. And I know what to do today. Being faithful at what I am given. Do not worry about tomorrow. "In every thing give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." I Thessalonians 5:18 |
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