Do you ever think about that word?  Until today I never really have other than to know for sure that human “glory” has a huge price…one I’ve never been willing to pay.  There was a time in my life just a few years ago when becoming well known in my work was creating a problem. I could see the cost of following after a more human kind of glory.  It made me shudder and want to lay down all my work and walk away.  Then a good friend encouraged me to dig deep, find the things that were the most important to me, and do my work, my way.  To not let anyone make me feel as if I owed them anything for my success.  To not give up anything I felt vital to my life.  To draw a line in the sand. That process was so hard!   All this time later I still feel myself searching for the line carefully with my toe and being wary of crossing it and losing myself in the process.

Then I went to church today.  The scriptures covered as part of the “Famous Last Words” series were John 17:1-12.  From the very first verse I knew it was time to sit up and take notes. “Father it is time…” Yes it is!  Time to decide if my line in the sand can be moved and by how much.  Time to see where God wants that line, not me. “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you”   Wow.  Now there’s a scary prayer.  Give me glory…

According to the pastor (who shall remain nameless since I didn’t ask his permission to blog about him) the definition of glory is “to praise, honor, or make much of.”  I sat there thinking, “OK God, if that’s what you mean….we can do this …you lead, I’ll follow.  I’ll probably want to hide…I won’t, but I’ll want to.”

Now, I’m not one for just taking a pastor word for anything simply because he’s the pastor (sorry guys!).  So as I sat down to write I hefted my Webster’s Unabridged onto the desk and looked up glory myself.  In the context of my own life each definition made me cringe a little more. “Very great praise.” “Distinguished ornament.” (Distinguished ORNAMENT? Who wants to be that?!)  “Object of pride.” “State of great splendor, magnificence, or prosperity.”  With the exception of object of pride, I love the look on my husband’s face when he says he’s proud of me, I don’t want to be any of those!  But they all fit where I thought God was using the sermon to take me. Then I came to a definition of glory that stopped me in my tracks, “the state of absolute happiness, gratification, and contentment.”

What an incredible prayer that would be!  “Father give me absolute happiness, gratification, and contentment that I may glorify you.”  Does anybody pray that way?  Are we capable of being that brave?   In the sense of “to whom much is given…” could we even live up to that?  Can we even define for ourselves what being absolutely happy would be?  Or to be 100% gratified by our lives?  To look around and feel nothing but contentment?  If we actually could reach out, grasp those words, and pray them with our entire being, could we then cling closely enough to Christ to bring glory to God in return?

Much of the sermon had a big impact on me and will be shaping a lot of the choices I make over the coming months.  Some like “Witness to people by all means, if necessary use words” (St. Francis) already illustrate the way I do things.  Other like “Don’t make it good, make it great!” and “there are NO secular jobs for Christians” and “God brags on us” will take some processing.  In the morning they will go on the blackboard in my gym so that I’ll see them every day.  I will breathe them in, let them sizzle across my nerves, and settle into my heart.  Then I will pray, not for my business to be a success, or my husband to live longer, not for each individual need of my friends, or the group needs of my clients.  No, I will pray “God give me glory.  God give me absolute happiness.  God give me gratification.  God give me contentment.  Yes God!  GIVE ME GLORY, that I may glorify YOU!”  My prayer for myself, and for every person I encounter, “God, give them glory.”

In my heart I think that is what Jesus was saying when he prayed for the disciples.  What a beautiful thought at a time he knew his life was coming to an end.  "And glory has come to me through them." Because of them he had happiness, gratification, and contentment, I want him to be able to pray that because of me one day.  Happiness, gratification, and contentment come to me through Virginia.

Will it come to him through you?