Reward In Eternity Does Not Depend On Recognition In Life

Reward in eternity does not depend on recognition in life, but so many of us live like it does.

I think of all the seminars people attend in order to improve their careers, or the energy people expend following sports teams or popular music. My goodness, shouldn't we devote the same energy, if not more, to the most important issues in life?

We live in a society that is so caught up in numbers … in our churches – how many people are members, how much money have we collected, how many attended this or signed up for that.

In our blogging – our endless obsession with our stats, hits, comments.

And in our culture, where bigger is always better.

When we get caught up in sizes, it can easily be about us, what we can do. It can quickly turn into a performance – a way to entertain vs. teaching God’s truth.

We have great visions of what our callings can be, but the getting there is hard. And perhaps what we sense to be great may not be in size, but in impact.

Can we appreciate and live with the smaller audience, the one that is in front of us, whether it is an audience of 1 or a handful?

The challenge is to keep our eyes on God and not what the world dictates we should be. Staying focused on Him and serving with what I do have can have a ripple effect if I will let go of the reigns and trust God.

It’s sad how we let numbers define us. Age, weight, salary, pant size, blog followers, Facebook likes, re-tweets, checkbook balance, calories consumed, home square footage, books sold – the list goes on and on. It’s depressing, really, because each time I see the numbers, I'm reminded of what I'm not instead of who I am.

I’m not a spring chicken; I’m not light as a feather; I make a grand total of $0 a month; my pants aren’t in the single digits; I have fewer followers than 90% of the bloggers I read; on a good day maybe 5 people will like my Facebook posts.

It’s the numbers that make me lose focus, get me off balance, convince me to assign a value to things that don’t really matter. But I don’t think Jesus is going to make my entry to heaven contingent upon my home size or bank account. He’s not going to tell me I’m too fat to fit through the gates. He’s not going to require 1,000 blog followers.

To the world my weight and pant size are too much. To social networking experts, my followers, likes, and comments reflect obscurity, to me they attest that others need my story. Just last week nine different countries visited my blog. And yes, it was just one visitor from each country, but it showed me what a mighty God I serve. He uses me - yes me - to spread the Gospel to countries across the world, not because I'm the best, but because I am willing....scars, bruises, and all.

If God uses me to touch just one life for His glory, it will all be worth it.

Numbers can lie and they often do. Don’t use them to measure your value....they quantify but never qualify. You are of great worth. Your significance to God cannot be measured in corruptible terms.

Blessings,
Dalinda