i loved this blog post stephen altrogge wrote about his grandfather. i think in my day to day social media hungry for viralness life that i need to remember these words...
“Despite his lack of public fame, my grandpa was truly great in God’s eyes. That’s the funny thing about true, biblical greatness. Biblical greatness almost never goes viral, because biblical greatness almost always involves doing things no one ever sees.” stephen altrogge, from “true greatness never goes viral”
doing things no one sees. or tweets. or instagrams. or facebrags (a facebook brag). or blogs about. or talks about later in a little aside to a friend. or oh so “humbly” mentions in passing. all of those are some of the ways i get in my props. ugh.
true greatness. not letting my left hand know what my right hand is doing. much less not announcing it to the world via social media.
perhaps not counting up my “likes” (can i ever remember a time before we knew what “likes” were?) not evaluating the comments. or lack of comments. not explaining how busy i am. how important i am. because of all the “things” i do. for others. for God. for my family. how ever will i get over myself?
i am always returning to romans 7 and 8 as ballast for my soul. as encouragement that not all is lost. that there is hope. that SomeOne understand. perhaps that is why i read it so often this summer (like how i got that brag in about my constant Bible reading?)
romans 7:21-23-25 (the message)
It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?
The answer,
thank God,
is that Jesus Christ can and does.
the only thing “true and great” about me is Jesus Christ. that's all i have to say about that today. and tomorrow. and into eternity. i am so indebted to the apostle paul. for penning those chapters in romans. but mostly indebted to Christ. who showed me that the greatest in His kingdom is those who never achieved it in this one...