Doing Great Things for God

I come across lines like these very often but a similar line from this book finally provoked me into blogging about it.

"he has been marked by God to do great things for His kingdom" 
(see the blue highlight in the pic)

Everyone regardless of your religious persuasion or station wants to do great things. Nobody wants to be humble. Of course if they try they usually fail. No one wants to do small things with great love, which is the secret of humility. I have come across an exception (see Shane Claiborne, 'The Irresistible Revolution - I bought that book in 2010)  but there are actually countless of them out there who prefers to be invisible and you have to look harder than gold to locate them.

But as I want to stop here, I thought perhaps this is the place to insert one of my favorite even if likely an apocrypha story: the Missionary Homecoming which can be found all over the Web.

An old missionary couple had been working in Africa for years and were returning to New York to retire. They had no pension; their health was broken; they felt defeated, discouraged, and afraid.

As the trip began, they discovered they were on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of his big-game hunting expeditions.

No one paid any attention to them. They watched the fanfare that accompanied the President's entourage, with passengers trying to catch a glimpse of the great man. As the ship moved across the ocean, the old missionary said to his wife, "Something is wrong."

"Why should we have given our lives in faithful service for God in Africa all these many years and have no one care a thing about us? Here this man comes back from a hunting trip and everybody makes much over him, but nobody gives two hoots about us."

"Dear, you shouldn't feel that way," his wife said.

He replied "I can't help it; it just doesn't seem right."

When the ship docked in New York, a band was waiting to greet the President. The mayor and other dignitaries were there. The papers were full of the President's arrival. No one noticed the missionary couple. They slipped off the ship, disappeared in the crowd, and found a cheap flat on the East Side, hoping the next day to see what they could do to make a living in the city.

That night the man's spirit broke. He said to his wife, "I can't take this; God is not treating us fairly." His wife replied, "Why don't you go in the bedroom and tell that to the Lord?"

A short time later he came out from the bedroom, but now his face was completely different. His wife asked, "Dear, what happened?"

The Lord settled it with me. I told Him how bitter I was that the President should receive this tremendous homecoming, when no one met us as we returned home. And when I finished, it seemed as though the Lord put His hand on my shoulder and simply said;

"You're not home yet."

It is never too late and it was this missionary opportunity of starting to do small things with great love. When you focused on the small things which nobody notices except God, you cannot expect the fanfare of a grand welcome. Wasn't God gracious to him before he gets home?

Forget about doing great things for God. He doesn't and never needed you to. Leave it entirely to him if he wants you to be great here. Too many missionaries had misappropriated William Carey, "Expect great things for God, attempt great things for God". No wonder churches are so caught up with the popular images of success. A success absent the personality of Christ.