Failure and Success: Godliness Is Not ValuedI have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day....—2 Timothy 4:7-8 After more than thirty years of observing the religious scene I have been forced to conclude that saintliness and church leadership are not often synonymous.... Were the church a pure and Spirit-filled body, wholly led and directed by spiritual considerations, certainly the purest and the saintliest men and women would be the ones most appreciated and most honored; but the opposite is true. Godliness is no longer valued, except for the very old or the very dead. The saintly souls are forgotten in the whirl of religious activity. The noisy, the self- assertive, the entertaining are sought after and rewarded in every way, with gifts, crowds, offerings and publicity. The Christlike, the self-forgetting, the other-worldly are jostled aside to make room for the latest converted playboy who is usually not too well converted and still very much of a playboy.... The wise Christian will be content to wait for that day. In the meantime, he will serve his generation in the will of God. If he should be overlooked in the religious popularity contests he will give it but small attention. He knows whom he is trying to please and he is willing to let the world think what it will of him. He will not be around much longer anyway, and where he is going men will be known not by their Hooper rating but by the holiness of their character. Man: The Dwelling Place of God, 97-99. "What a sad statement, Lord, that 'saintliness and church leadership are not often synonymous.' Again we're forced to recognize that if we serve You as You want, we may have to wait for recognition. Help me today to focus on 'holiness of... character' whether I'm valued by people or not. Amen." |
