Who Are You Trying to Be?

As a worker in the harvest field, you will be confronted with the issues of success, ego, and status. You'll wonder if you're really producing anything, if anyone notices how much you're doing for God's Kingdom, and if your skills are noticed and valued. Once you have entered the harvest field, you will be drawn toward the culture's siren call of stardom. Are you the greatest life-changer ever? Can you pack a building? Will people know you and want to hear more from you?

It's a strange and dangerous trap. You enter into God's service for the purpose of helping people. The lost need to be found. The "least of these" need to be noticed and cared for. The hopeless need prayer and comfort. The straying are in need of the Word that is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. But then you want more. You want recognition. You want wealth. You want to be adored as the expert and authority--so wise and smart.

Paul summed it up well in Romans 7:24 when he said, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"

We turn the Gospel into a tool we possess, into a message that makes us the star, into a means for popularity and personal gain. Sometimes this sinful twistedness is blatant. At other times it is in the form of hidden yearning beneath a humble veneer.

What is the answer? Romans 7:25 reveals it: "Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Jesus opens a way through the ego-driven, personal recognition seeking, sinful enclosure we build. Philippians 2:7 reveals Jesus' pathway through the celebrity sensationalizing culture and the prominence enticing church: "[He] made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant."

The answer to chasing the call of self-aggrandizement is to know who you are really trying to be.

Are you trying to be a star? Are you trying to be a guru? Are you trying to be popular? Are you trying to get rich? Are you trying to get attention? Or will you follow in the steps of the One who became nothing, taking the very nature of a servant to save you? Who are you really trying to be?

What if you tried to be nothing so that all the ego-rooted worries and inner battles could be stilled and Jesus could be completely seen and glorified in your life and ministry?

What if you gave your ministry your all--every ounce of your energy and dedication--but let ulterior motives and fears melt away into Jesus' great promise, "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it" (Mark 8:35)?

What if you became determined to live a mustard seed and leaven life, allowing God to make much of the little you offer without trying to inflate it yourself?

What if you decided to be still before God as you serve Him and let Him make the noise needed in the church and in the world?