When People Are Big And God Is Small - 28/04/10
By Amy Galea
I am average at most things. In most realms I'm 'competent' but leave more to be desired. I'm mediocre when it comes to music, sport, academia, general knowledge and I'm not very funny. I come from a long line of average folk − my family’s slogan is ‘we will rise to the level of our mediocrity!' I'm not even kidding. Don’t get me wrong, I’m okay at a lot of things, but I'm not really great at anything.
This is not a sob story or an inspirational ‘How to find your niche in life: 101’. It's more about a realisation I had recently − one I probably should have had a while ago.
You see I realised that the way we work out what we're good at, what counts as our 'success' and what achievements we have attained, is by comparison. If you come out looking good comparatively, take the UAI for example, you have achieved something. The problem is that what drives us to achieve, much of the time, is the thoughts of those around us. We want respect, we want to be acknowledged and we want to make a name for ourselves. That being said, we need to consider what our definition of 'greatness' is and who it is we are seeking acknowledgement from.
In the same way we were created to worship, any person who's been to a concert can see that. It's just ‘what’ or ‘whom’ we are worshipping that matters. In Ephesians 1, Paul writes "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight".
Further on it says:
“In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.”
When people are big and God is small you forget these things. You forget the love that God has for you and the grace he has lavished on you ‘with all wisdom and understanding’. You forget that he has chosen you to be his child, that he took away your death sentence with his immeasurable grace, that he is a jealous God who doesn’t want you worshipping created things.
When people are big you can fall into navel gazing, into obsession with self image − whether physical or emotional. Out of this comes either pride or jealousy, or often pride and jealousy.
But when you grasp the fact that God is big, and it’s his opinion that matters and his alone, you find that your identity is secure in him. Hebrews 6:19 says ‘We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.’
Our salvation is indeed secure. The most important relationship in our lives is with our King, and it’s his opinion that should matter to us the most. We should try to walk away from sin and live ‘self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age’ (Titus 2:12) because we know that our disobedience hurts Him. We should speak of his offer of salvation everywhere because he wants many ‘disciples of all nations’ (Matt 28:19) and we should spend time with him because he (amongst other things) breathed life into us, predestined, redeemed and has adopted us into his family.
Can I suggest that it’s just as easy to fall into worrying about how other Christians perceive us, as it is falling into worrying about what the world thinks of us? There’s a ‘Christian’ equivalent of worldly success, which often includes our good works being acknowledged in front of men.
My friend once said that if we wait for our motives to become pure we will forever be waiting and not much will get done. But we should constantly be re-evaluating why it is we do what we do. We should be motivated to live our lives for Jesus’ glory not because we will appear ‘super duper godly' to fellow believers, but because we want to serve our great King.
I fail in seeking God's approval above men as much as the next person (maybe even more so), but this is truth that you need to keep coming back to − every time you start to feel a little bit smug, and every time you feel like a complete failure.
I might be average, but my sin is horrendous. My sin is horrendous and my God became flesh to do away with it. That is not average. My God is so big.