2-9-06
When we see someone who truly excels at something we think is
important or that we enjoy what reaction does it inspire? I love guitar
music, athletics, and preaching among other things. I really, really enjoy it
when I watch and listen to someone play a piece on the guitar that I know
is difficult and he makes it look easy and sound great. Nothing I like better
in sports than a perfectly executed back door play ending in a high-flying
acrobatic slam-dunk. When a guy explains a difficult passage in a way that
makes sense and God uses that to touch my heart I love it.
Sometimes, though, the experience we have of someone else’s
excellence results in adulation. Adulation probably leads to a desire, not
to replicate a like performance with our own God-given style and skills, but
rather to be like that person. When those things happen to us we are
crossing God’s plumb line. We are giving to men what only God should
receive from us. No one but God deserves one whit of our adulation, and
we have no business aspiring to be like anyone but Jesus.
Time and again when people experience the apostles or others performing
the works of God, they would ascribe the feat to the apostles and even
begin to worship them. The apostolic reaction was always immediate and
always the same, “get up – I’m a man just like you!” Even angels refused
the adulation of men in every instance recorded in the Bible.
What then should our reaction be? Joy! Pure joy in the skills and artistry
that God alone has given to those as He willed. It is always a display of
God’s own glory, even when the performer claims it all for himself and
doesn't acknowledge God in any way at all. There is a day coming when
that performer will realize and acknowledge those truths from his heart.
For some we can hope it will not be when it is too late for them.
We can also enjoy our own performances just as much in those areas in
which we might excel at the world-class level as those at which we have
little ability. We use the ability God has given and toil and struggle in His
powerful energy. The measure of faith given is the measure of faith that
should be used; surely the same is true in all things. Joy from God and joy
in God and in all of God’s good gifts to all men!
Dale
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