I Have Heard of Your Fame

"Lord, I have heard of your fame 

I stand in awe of your deeds, Oh Lord."

~ Brian Doerksen: Remember Mercy

We live in a world driven by marketing, fueled by personality, style... that little something extra.

We are asked questions like: Define your message....find your niche...target your audience.

We compete for followers, friends, acolytes, apprentices, viewers...

I understand the business side of things. I understand making money.

The problem I see is that we are buying our own PR.

The self promoting Law of Attraction attracts us all:
Be attractive, think attractive thoughts....project attractive .. and it will come to you.

Who doesn't want that???

Your name becomes equated with significance and influence.People want to know what you think. How you think. How you became powerful. How you got to where you are. Your story becomes the rage, the model. You become the pattern.

Sell. Sell. Sell.

What are we selling exactly?

The truth is we're selling ourselves: We are the product.

Things are not famous. People are.

" When we say, 'What a wonderful personality, what a fascinating person, and what wonderful insight!' then what opportunity does the gospel of God have through all of that? It cannot get through, because the attraction is to the messenger and not the message. If a person attracts through his personality, that becomes his appeal.If, however, he is identified with the Lord Himself, then the appeal becomes what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is to glory in men, yet Jesus say we are to lift up only Him.(See John 12:32)"

~Oswald Chambers: My Utmost for His Highest

Jesus called John the Baptist a reed, shaken by the wind:

As John's disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John:

"What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind?" 

~Matthew 11:7

Even way back then, people ran to the latest and the greatest.

But: 

John only points to Jesus and Jesus pointed to His father.

Who are you pointing to?

 Lately, my prayers have gone something like this:
Lord make me transparent, see through, a way maker: one who directs others beyond myself to the Only True source of Life.

We are in a society that thrives on the spectacle, elevates the performer, venerates the gifted.

We worship success.

Jesus said: He who is least among you shall be the greatest. 

No one I know pursues a life of invisibility.

Who wants to be anonymous?

God have mercy....be gracious to me... grant me humility....

Water is life....no one worships the pipes that transport it: they are buried behind walls, underground...
Some are rusted and weathered, dented and beaten by the elements: They are not the point.

Water is the treasure.

Jesus is the Living Water.

He has offered us the role of a lifetime: to make His name glorious...

Have you accepted the part?
I am not auditioning for any other roles...how about you?

"A gift is worn on the outer man, an inheritance is planted deep inside."

~Gene Edwards

By the time our lives are finished the inner life will be revealed...what story will be told then?
Whose name have you made great?