Reluctant Heroes

This past year has been somewhat disappointing but at the same time gratifying. Somewhere in the journey to grow my relationship with Christ, I think I'm beginning to learn what humility really means. For years I set my sights on accomplishing things that defined who I was. But the longer I chased certain goals, the more I realized they are NOT who or what I am. They're just what I do. And in the end, none of it matters. Not really, anyway.

It's like we live our lives to build a résumé. We tell people who we are by giving them a job title. We talk about making names and leaving legacies, all for our own benefit and glory, and we wonder why it leaves our lives shallower than our graves.

We are all tempted to chase the world's definitions of success. God knows this, which is why His first instruction to us is to not have any gods before Him. He knows that without Him, the biggest god in our lives will look a lot like the image we see in a mirror. Only when I open His Word am I refocused.

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"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"

Jeremiah 17:9

I can chase a name the world remembers, as long as I forget that my heart is so deceitfully wicked that no one can truly know it.

I'm convinced no hero in the Bible ever got up in the morning and thought, "I want to be a hero." A real hero never sets out to be one. That thought never entered their minds, because most heroic actions involve life-changing pain or danger.

Mary had no idea she was preparing to be the mother of Jesus. She was just cruising through life and loving God, not thinking, "I want to be known around the world and have a million followers on Instagram."

David had no idea, taking lunch to his brothers on the battlefield, that he was also going to save Israel. He was just doing what his dad told him to do.

Check out the life of Abraham. He told lies and took shortcuts to get what he thought was best, and all along, God worked around and through his shortcomings to bless the world.

It seems like all the true heroes were reluctant in some way. Even the ones who knew they were stepping into something huge still felt as if they had nothing, and weren't sure what they were doing. They just did it.

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"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Micah 6:8

That's the whole thing, isn't it? Walk humbly. That level of humility is the difference between a life lived for today and one that redounds to eternity.

Ask God to bless you with humility in all that you do. I have. And I promise you, I have no idea what I'm doing, but my perspective has changed, and the results quit mattering.

Today is a blessing. Use it.

Be Nice. Grace Wins.

FMJ