When I was a little girl, I used to wrap a towel around my head and pretend I was someone famous with long flowing hair. Sometimes, I'd pretend I was Blair from Facts of Life, or a famous singer featured in Teen Beat. Once the television show Star Search came along, I had a whole new avenue for my imaginary path to fame and fortune. Never mind that I could neither sing nor act.
These simple childhood imaginings look different for our children. They are bombarded in real time with the tempting belief that success and meaning translates to things that are big and noticeable. They see and know of peers who have posted a Vine that went viral or have gained thousands of Twitter followers. They watch average people become The Voice or an American Idol or sole Survivor.
It is troubling that this trend looks very similar both inside and outside the church. Numbers and recognition have become the altars where we bow. Celebrity is no longer something pursued and admired for the world at large, but also for those who sit on church pews.We are living in a culture where doing large things in life, and even big things for God, has been taken to a whole new level. Celebrity spans from holy huddles to screaming masses.
The lines have blurred between how the world defines success and how the Church defines success. Both promote building a following and creating a large platform and measuring success by numbers and quantitative global impact. With this, comes a declining respect for the nobility of roles such as homemaking and service jobs.
Tedious work and manual labor are not valued as significant endeavors. Women, in particular, must live up to a standard that preaches the ideal of fulfilling multiple roles and many tasks according to Pinterest-worthy criteria.
A precedence is being set for our ambitions. And, we make it our ambition, even as followers of Jesus, to birth wildly popular programs and write best selling books and create viral blog posts.
All with the idea that we can change the world if we can only go big and get noticed.
We are a society enamored with the concept of being world changers. With leaving colossal marks in our stead for generations to come. We are a generation defining our lives and our legacy by shock and awe. We see it in the next generation, through the passion for social justice held by Millennials and Generation Z. Young people are starry eyed about being able to reach the entire world because access to the entire world has literally been brought to their fingertips.
But what if. Just what if ... what if we have this ambition thing all wrong?
What if we can redefine this shock and awe mentality? Because the truth buried beneath the glitz and notoriety is that a life lived diligently in the mundane is what's truly shocking. A life invested in tiny acts of faithful service should receive the most awe. Those who tirelessly pursue loving and knowing Jesus more every day, and those who chase living that love out during average days and normal lives -- these are the ones who understand the call to obedience.
These are the ones setting the pace for others to follow because they dare to live a humble, small life that is bent low at the feet of a big God. They understand that the stuff of heaven is lived out in the trenches of earth.
How my heart soared with this echoing and refreshing battle cry spoken throughout the IF Gathering this past weekend. This preposterous idea that a heart beating for an upside kingdom does simple and small things, over and again.
In the weeks prior to IF, I had been mulling over the following verse. Out of the blue, it came to mind, and hasn't stopped rolling around my brain since then.
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