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I
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....
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."
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