christian life

“Do you want to get well?”

/ Will N. / Leave a comment

In John 5:6, Jesus asks a man who cannot walk, “Do you want to be made well?”

In context, the question seems odd seeing how we have already been told the man spends his days lying beside a pool renowned for its healing qualities. When we consider that the text says he had been in this debilitating condition for almost forty years, the question Jesus poses almost seems insulting or cruel.

In reality, Jesus can see that the man’s identity is deeply tied to his affliction, the routine it enforces, and the position it has placed him in for so long. Ultimately, Jesus heals the man and sets him free to begin a new life. While this account offers a practical example of the healing/restoring aspects of Christ’s earthly ministry, it also provides insight into our own need for spiritual healing today.

Sometimes we must give up a thing we identify with or take comfort in to begin to recover. In this account, the man was known as the one who lay daily by the pool. He was identified as a long-time lame man for whom his physical lack had become the defining aspect of his life. Not just the severity, but length of time and public place played a role in this reputation.

While we are not all physically marked, we too can gain an identity because of our life circumstances. We all know great high school athletes who are still remembered for their sporting skills decades after leaving the field. We know folks who are always seen as “the life of the party” regardless of how old they are. If we are not careful, we can allow these types of outward reputation to define us inwardly as well. We can get stuck in a familiar identity and find ourselves playing into a set role.

When we encounter Christ, the old self dies, and a new life is begun (Rom 6:1-4). We can no longer live just as we did before but now look to live as embodied examples of Christ (Gal 2:20). We may still look the same physically, but we no longer draw our primary identity from our past reputation, our current positions, or our family connections. In Christ, we are united with all others who have made this commitment regardless of our outward differences (Gal 3:26-29).

In addition to laying the old life down, the new life we are called to demands changes not only our hearts but our public-facing actions. The remains of our old life will seek to cling to us and stereotype us into shame, but as we mature in the Christian life, new thoughts, actions, and habits help to move us forward.

Was I a profane man before? Now I seek to intentionally speak with kindness and grace. Was I always working to pursue my own gain? Now I use my blessings to bless others. Was I known to others as a braggart, a cheat, or a self-righteous critic? I acknowledge these sins, find peace in Christ’s grace, and then move toward repairing relationships with others.

Jesus confronted the lame man because true recovery can only come when we are honest about our need. We can no more fix ourselves spiritually than the man in John 5 could will himself to perfect physical health. Being content to apply a fresh band-aid each day will never heal a deep wound that requires surgery- only when we admit the depth of our need will we admit our own limitations and cry out for His healing. When we come face to face with the Great Physician, may we have the self-awareness to see our deep hurts and receive His compassionate care.

Beloved of the Father

/ Will N. / Leave a comment

One of the driving themes of Scripture is the ongoing relationship of God with His people. Whether as the LORD Almighty of the prophet’s vision (Isa 6), the God-Who-Sees Hagar’s distress (Gen 16), or the Babe of Bethlehem (Mt 1-2), our God shows up again and again both in power and in proximity. Despite lacking nothing, God is constantly moving toward relationship. In this reality, God more fully reveals His desire for community. Not only does He seek us and nearness to us, there is an eternal relational aspect present within God’s nature as Father, Son, and Spirit.

With Father’s Day this Sunday, many people will be reflecting on their relationships with their earthly fathers. Some kids are picking out BBQ supplies or golf balls to surprise their dads while others are wondering where their fathers are and why they are not present in their lives. Some of us grown-ups will get together with our fathers and give thanks for the bonds we share or will be blessed by precious memories of a good father gone from this life, but others will experience their fathers through a brief text message, an awkward phone call, the silence of estrangement, or a visit to the cemetery.

The human fathers of Scripture too are a mixed assortment of strengths and weaknesses. Abraham is seen as the father of the faithful, yet he struggled in his daily role as a husband and father. Like Abraham, his son Isaac and grandson Jacob were frequently flawed as family men. David was a man who sought the heart of God and composed beautiful psalms of praise, and yet his parenting produced sons filled with lust, arrogance, and poor judgement. The gifted disciple Timothy was brought up in the faith not by his spiritually absent father, but by a godly mother and grandmother who tirelessly taught him the Scriptures. What does this mixed review reveal about men as fathers and our lives as the people of God?

All human fathers are people, and no person is perfect. The patriarchs (the fathers of the faith such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), despite their struggles, were acknowledged as having covenant relationships with the one true God. God reveals Himself to Moses by saying, “I am the God of your father— the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). In order to clarify to Moses who He is, God connects Himself in relationship to these flawed men of faith. God also claims a relationship not just with these long-dead ancestors, but with Moses’s own little-known father (Amram) who had lived his whole life under the bitter yoke of slavery.

When we are confused about His identity, God reveals to us who He is through His relationship with our fathers. Even if our earthly fathers were not believers, as disciples we are all part of God’s spiritual family going back to the beginning when He created us in His image as relational beings.

At times, we forget who we are. We become distracted by the urgency of the present, and we lose sight of the fact that we are a part of a great heritage of the godly men and women of the past. If we are/were blessed with a Christ-like father who loved us well, may we give thanks for how he demonstrated our heavenly Father to us. If our relationship with our own father is/was complex/estranged/absent, may we take comfort that in the family of God, we are given His care and compassion far beyond any human’s ability. If tempted to lose faith in people, may we lean more deeply into the embrace of our Good Father and share His love with those we encounter this week.

What Is Truth?

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Our culture has trained us well to expect a general level of salesmanship, gimmick, and creative accounting in all areas of life. Whether the showroom, the courtroom, the campaign trail, or even the pulpit, we live in a world where far too often realities are stretched and assumptions are left uncorrected in order to gain advantage.

While we might not admit it aloud, we often think of basic honesty as naïve at best. “The world just doesn’t work that way anymore” we think, or we embrace some version of the logic that “honesty may be the best policy, but we aren’t dealing with good people” that allows us to justify our own departures from the truth.

The reality is that some things are true whether I want them to be or not. My opinion on whether or not the laws of gravity apply to me does not impact whether or not I will fall if I slip while on my roof. I may be thoroughly convinced that gravity is not real or that I never granted such an abstract force the right to control my life, but I will still find myself on the ground looking up. Strong commitment is great, but even the most solid commitment to the wrong idea just leaves me sore and corrected by experience.

Jesus and the Roman governor Pilate engage in a revealing conversation in John 18-19. Jesus, having been arrested and falsely accused, is brought before Pilate to receive punishment. It is festival season, and Jerusalem is teeming with hundreds of thousands of weary, foot-sore people already unhappy with Pilate’s rule. In addition to the crowds, the local religious leaders and the figurehead of Rome’s puppet government in the region also have an interest in what happens to Jesus.

Jesus is accused of setting Himself up to be a king- a claim, that if true, would put Him in rebellion against Pilate’s government. Pilate questions Jesus about His plans, and Jesus responds that His kingdom is not from this world. While showing no interest in setting up a new earthly dynasty, Jesus tells Pilate he is not entirely wrong, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” (John 18:37 NKJV)

Jesus shifts the emphasis from political expediency and Pilate’s desire to be let off the hook to the everlasting mission of God- that God’s Christ would come to proclaim the true reality of God and that all who receive this truth will be a part of God’s kingdom.

Ever the politician, Pilate remarks, “What is truth?”

We don’t know Pilate’s tone, but his subsequent actions indicate he was unwilling to see the Way, the Truth, and the Life standing directly in front of him. Jesus says even Pilate’s authority is not of his own making, and yet Pilate uses his agency to choose the “go along to get along” path rather than to stand for what is true and right. He declares the innocence of Jesus while in the same moment consenting to His death. Truth can be realized in thought, acknowledged in word, and yet still be ignored in action.

Each day, the world around us encourages us to choose what is easy and smooth over what is difficult and may prove dangerous. If we believe that truth is most fully known and experienced in Jesus, will we be willing to stand for what is right when it would be easier to ignore falsehoods and dodge hard conversations? Ultimately, there can be no peace with God and no lasting peace with others without the foundation of truth. May we seek to lay this strong foundation, and having done so, build our lives and character upon it.

Prayer for Summertime

/ Will N. / Leave a comment

O, Lord, Giver of every good gift, we give You thanks for the arrival of a new season of life. Bless us in the coming months with hearts that are aflame with a desire to honor You by serving our neighbors.

Help us to realize that our lives must be yielded to You before they can be laid down and offered for the good of those around us. Give us eyes to see what truly matters and to appreciate the needs next door, down the street, and around the world.

Grant us the wisdom to look beyond the distractions of headlines and status updates and instead to see the real people we encounter day by day who stand in need of care and compassion. May our hearts be filled with tenderness for the struggling among us. Help us not to turn away from those who can be hard to love as we realize our own shortcomings and struggles.

Watch over our young children and teachers as they enjoy their break from school. Be with our teenagers attending practices, traveling to events, and working summer jobs.

We pray a special measure of protection, grace, and courage for those who ending their school days and who are now moving forward to receive further education, to begin their careers, or to start their own families.

Be with the parents who must balance earning a living and making memories with their families. We pray for those striving for a better life as they also seek to support those dependent on them for help. We pray for single adults raising children alone and trying to balance the barrage of summer activities.

Grant mercies to those who are lonely today- may they find the community they long for. Bless those fighting the daily battle with addiction- grant them a measure of strength in this season when social events and vacations can provide added dangers of relapse.

Watch over those working out in the heat and storms of summer- bless the farmers, the linemen, the construction workers, law enforcement officers, and first responders.

Be with the old, the sick, and the infirmed who suffer most acutely during the long days of summer. Keep watch over all those facing the heat of our Southern summer without adequate cooling.

Remind us to look out for each other.

Be with those traveling for work, family, or fun during the coming week and the summer months ahead. Give them traveling mercies for safety as they journey.

Be with our country and community as the summer brings again the focus on politics and power. Help us to keep faith with one another and to extend grace to one another in such tense and troubled days. Let us realize that when the dust of our disagreements settles back to earth, we will be left facing our problems together. May this reality cause us to consider our hearts and give heed to our words even as passions are high and differences great.

Lord, we so often fall short of Your desires for us- we leave undone what we ought to do, and we do things that pull our hearts away from You and from the care we owe to one another. Help us, in ways big and small, to be conformed more and more to the image of Jesus. May this season open our eyes to His will for us.

In His name, amen.

How We Hold Together

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You have likely seen such vehicles after a big community yard sale. Driven by a person who “was just going to look,” it is now filled with two tables, three mismatched chairs, some assorted shelves, multiple lamps, and several boxes of odds and ends. This bounty is held in the back of the small pickup with bungee straps, some well-worn packing twine, and no small measure of hope. As this heavy-laden truck passes, you think, “There is no way that will hold together.”

When we look at the church as described in the pages of the New Testament, any outsider, even one sympathetic to this new movement, would have taken one look at the odd assortment of people that made up that first Christ-centered community, and thought, “There is no way they will hold together.”

And yet they did- often remarkably well.

We could credit God’s favor on the early church, and Scripture testifies to that reality. It could be pointed out that beginning on the first Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus the church was blessed with the powerful, miracle-bringing gifts of the Holy Spirit, or the fact that almost all of the original leaders had been personally discipled by Jesus Himself. While all of these factors combined to bless the church, I also believe those early disciples had to choose to stay focused and faithful to their message and this shared message of love, grace, and hope experienced in Christ Jesus not only anchored them in Him- it bound them to each other.

One trait we clearly recognize in the early church was their belief that both blessings and burdens were to be communal experiences. This connection was material and financial, but it was also expressed in deep emotional and spiritual commitments. These first Christians were concerned about the general welfare of the community of faith. In the survival-of-the-fittest world of the Roman empire, a world not all that different from our own, Christians were to be moved by each other’s joys and sufferings. Paul summarized this spirit in the quotable reminder to the congregation at Rome- “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (Rom 12:15).

Not only was the early church emotionally united, they also sought (often imperfectly) to subdue all party spirit to the authority of Christ. Identifiers that shaped their worldviews and relationships outside of the church were to be overwhelmed by the higher calling of devotion to Christ. Paul wrote to the churches of Galatia to remind them that distinctions of ethnicity, gender, and cultural background, while not ceasing to exist outwardly, were to be submitted to the greater unity found in shared commitment to Christ. As long as differences were allowed to hold dominant sway over Christian hearts and behavior, the church struggled, but when such differences were acknowledged as present but placed under Christ’s authority, the church benefited and was blessed by differing perspectives. Ultimately, as a patchwork of different regions, races, and worldviews, the church was forced to confront the reality that, as “the greatest of these,” love must serve to align diverse gifts and perspectives (1 Cor 13).

Today, if we want to hold together and present a united witness to our world, we must love the truth of God’s Word and allow His Word to guide us in loving each other. We hold on to Jesus, and we strive to hold on to each another. This love for God and love for neighbor is the foundation not only of any lasting Christian unity but is also our best hope for a kinder, more grace-filled world.

Slowing Down, Listening Up

/ Will N. / Leave a comment

While writing in my favorite coffeeshop last week, a professor at our local university who I had not seen recently walked by and said, “Will, it’s good to see you. How long have you been here?”

Thinking he meant serving the church in our community, I replied, “Over 20 years now.”

He gave me a slightly puzzled look.

“I meant in this coffeeshop. I must have missed you when I walked in.”

My answer was accurate, but not accurate for the question he was actually asking. Life can be like that as well; we are giving a right answer, but we have failed to truly understand the nature of the question.

Much of the conflict and confusion in our culture comes from missed (or missing) communication. We spend a lot of time talking, but too often we are talking passed one another. Because we often focus on responding to others rather than reflecting on what they truly mean, we end up confused and frustrated. How can I better hear what others are saying when topics arise where we disagree?

Turn down the temperature. One issue that quickly can sidetrack a conversation is when the level of emotion becomes elevated too quickly. This type of heated exchange fuels cable news, talk radio, and religious discussion boards, but often causes potentially meaningful conversations to fizzle. If I am passionate about an issue, I must also consider that the other person may be just as passionate. This realization is especially helpful if I take the time to realize that I may not be as personally invested in the subject as my counterpart. If we are discussing adoption, I may have many well-researched ideas, but if the person sitting across from me was adopted as a child or is currently in the adoption process after years of infertility, I do not share the same connection to the subject. This realization is not some type of moral relativism, it is simply acknowledging the fact that no two people come to any conversation with the same background, and our experiences deeply shape our thoughts and emotions. The writer of Proverbs 15:1 wisely notes the need to “chill out” before responding in anger and says, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” When I can pause to gentle and soften the conversation, I stand a better chance of both truly hearing and being heard.

Consider the time and place. It is also important to consider the timing and setting of the exchange. If a person confronts me with an online comment at 2 AM, I won’t see it immediately, can choose to ignore it, or if needed, follow up privately. If a person asks me something in a one-on-one conversation, I have more time and focus to respond well rather than being put on the spot in a larger group like in a staff meeting or church assembly. Not every question merits a response, and not every answer needs to be given in an immediate, public way. Our instant, social media-saturated world tells us that to respond quickly is to win, but the opposite is almost always true. The person who can slow down and consider the best, most helpful way to respond in the specific setting is more likely to make a lasting difference.

When we fail to pay attention to others, we open ourselves up to confusion and conflict. As we live each day, may we seek to imitate the Prince of Peace who understood and modeled the power of listening and faithfully responding to people’s needs in ways that best fit the demands of the moment.

What Matters Most

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Because what we focus on determines the way we live, what we place first in our hearts becomes the driving motivation for our daily actions.

What are some questions can we ask ourselves to better realize the forces that dominate our lives?

What are we talking about? We talk mostly about two topics- what we must talk about to live (work issues/schedules/bills) and what we care deeply about in our own hearts. Even as believers, we can spend vast amounts of time each week talking with those around us about sports, entertainment, or politics, and yet spiritual topics seldom arise. Witnessing the overly-aggressive zeal in some religious people may have caused us to give up speaking about spiritual matters all together. While we need to use wisdom and discernment when sharing our faith, it is a sad state when friends, coworkers, and neighbors know much about which team I cheer for, who I vote for, and what music I love, but know little about my commitment to Christ.

How do we spend our money? Another indicator of our focus is demonstrated in how we spend our money. We might spend several hundred dollars on tickets to a favorite concert or sporting event but would balk at giving such a gift to the work of the local church or Christian organization. We spend freely on maintaining our vehicles, eating in restaurants, and impulse buying clothes and decor to fill our homes, yet we seldom open our hearts and wallets to those in need around us. The Scriptures warn us not to set our hope in uncertain riches (1 Tim 6) and that the hoarded wealth we should have shared will witness against us in the judgment (James 5). When those around me see how I spend my money, does my spending show my priority of serving God and others?

Where do we spend our time? As much as conversation and checkbooks, where we spend our time often becomes a visual demonstration of our priorities. Once school, work, and family responsibilities are fulfilled, where am I spending my time?

Recreation is a God-given gift- Jesus and His disciples took times of rest, attended socials gatherings like weddings and feasts, and enjoyed time with friends and neighbors. In our modern world, however, we often sacrifice the spiritual on the altar of the social. While some folks manage this tension well, most of us could honestly admit that we spend more time on our own amusements than on God and His service. When there are opportunities for fellowship with believers, do I seek them out? Do I turn my time in worship into a “punching a clock” obligation that I go to reluctantly and leave quickly to get to other things? Am I willing to spend all day on the lake or at the ballfield or on a shopping trip, but never consider taking extended time to share in a youth event, Christian conference, or special church function? None of us can do all things, and recreation that is not sinful in itself can be done to God’s glory, but the subtle danger is that my personal “me time” will grow more and more self-focused and less God-honoring.

No one is immune from placing self before God. When such misplaced devotion occurs consistently over time, we fail to center our lives as we should, and we live with divided hearts. If our lives do not reflect God as our first priority, may we humbly recognize our error, genuinely repent, and fully refocus our hearts on Him.

In Praise of Small Places

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“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

This question comes from the lips of Nathanael, a man whom Jesus Himself would commend for being a straight talker (John 1:46-47). Today Nazareth is a predominantly Muslim city of nearly 80,000 people in northern Israel. Modern Nazareth also has a large Christian population and the city benefits from tourism centered around the New Testament testimony of ancient Nazareth as the hometown of Jesus. If you are familiar with Scripture and remember the town’s name, you most likely think of Nazareth in the context of the oft-repeated designation of our Lord as “Jesus of Nazareth.”

Today, Nathanael’s incredulity at the origins of the Messiah seems out of place. After all, 80,000 people is well more than double the entire population of Weakley County, yet in its day, Nazareth was a tiny village- neither David’s birthplace (Bethlehem) or the home of God’s temple (Jerusalem). Nathanael raises an honest question, “How could someone so great and so important come from such a small, forgotten place?”

I admit I hold a great affection for small places. I have lived in four towns in my four decades of life- all in West Tennessee and each with less than 3,000 residents. While I have been blessed to travel to some of the largest cities in the world and enjoyed those visits, I have returned here again and again. I will be the first to confess small places are not perfect- in fact, they hold the same challenges as cities even if harder to recognize. Small towns can serve as strongholds of hypocrisy, islands of poverty, dens of crime, and homes to violence. Hard times hit small places hard- when factories close, when younger generations move away, when addictions arrive to fill the emptiness and loneliness of hurting people.

Despite the struggles, I believe there is value in the intimacy of such a life.

To know the names of the people you meet each day at the store and in the bank- to love them as your parents loved their parents as your grandparents loved their grandparents. To shop local because you know the family’s youngest daughter got braces last week or because their uncle passed suddenly and you want to help with expenses. For an old man to remind you of what a great athlete your daddy was or to thank you for your grandfather’s service in the war. To be told you come from good stock or to be praised for overcoming a tough upbringing. To hear the same stories again and again, and although you were born fifty years after the fact, you feel like you saw the drought, the winning shot, or the great fire. To see hardworking people slip a few bills into a young father’s hand when he was short at the store- careful not to let his children see that he had come to the end of his money but not to the end of the month. To know those church ladies armed with worn Bibles and well-used casserole dishes who always whispered to the young teachers each August, “If you have any children in your class who need anything, you just let me know.”

No place is perfect. Even in small places, we face challenges to fund and feed and fix, and we often disagree on how best to do that. We have many differences in how we think, worship, vote, and live, yet we should not be surprised that the Man who taught us to love God and to love our neighbor came from a place where He would have known His neighbors by name.

When we are committed to loving God and serving where He has planted us, good things will continue to come from the least likely places.

Fully Known & Fully Loved

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“I’m fine.”

It’s likely we have received or offered this generic line many times when responding to the classic question, “How are you?” Many of us spend a great deal of time and energy seeking to be (or at least appear) self-sufficient in the eyes of those around us. The reason for this attitude differs- pride at our own ability to handle things, a genuine desire to not worry others, or even our unawareness of our own needs.

One of our greatest desires as human beings is to be able to share experiences and to relate to those around us. We have witnessed this when small children go off to school, when we travel abroad, or when seniors move into a new retirement community. In the midst of new and potentially overwhelming situations, we long to find a person with who we can relate to and share our discomfort. One true friend, a helpful local who speaks our language, or a friendly face to welcome us serve as blessings that give us the strength to keep going in tough moments.

On the other hand, one of our great fears lies in the idea that if people really knew us, they would not love us, care for us, or help us. This mindset can have long and lasting negative results. Such an attitude can cause us to avoid engaging with others to seem strong and competent. Sometimes the impact is relatively small like when we refuse to ask for help in a store or resist asking for directions in driving- we may be delayed and frustrated, but we are more inconvenienced than hurt. Other situations, like denying help for addiction or struggling alone with anxiety or depression, can have life-changing impact if we are not able to overcome fear and to receive the support we need.

To be human is to be made of dust and to be made of dust is to be vulnerable, and yet many of us spend a great deal of time and effort seeking to convince those around us we are fine just as we are and do not need help from anyone.

In our relationship with God, we do not have to fear being known. He already knows us fully, and He loves us completely. He appreciates all that we are and all that we try to be, and He also sees the darkness that many of us seek to avoid dealing with by pushing it deeper to the corners of our lives.

We constantly strive to build up our own defenses even as our loving Father offers not stronger defenses against our worst impulses but divinely-empowered deliverance from them.

One attribute God possesses that we do not is the ability to know the entirety of a situation. As people, we may downplay, mislead, or intentionally lie about when we are struggling and dealing with conflict and trials, but there is no hiding the needs of our hearts from God. He already knows, and He welcomes us, broken as we all are, to come to Him.

We all long to be more fully known and yet we fear that if we are completely honest, we will not be loved.

Thankfully, God’s love is not based on our perfection, but in His nature.

The great blessing comes when we cease to struggle against this love, and rather gratefully accept it and live our lives out of its reality. In Christ, we are called to not only accept His gracious love for us but to receive it gladly then to turn and extend it to others.

Accepting this loving reality of relationship forever alters our answer to the question, “How are you?”

“I am loved.”

Nothing Remains Hidden

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In Mark 4:22, Jesus makes a startling declaration, “For there is nothing hidden which shall not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light.”

As we look at our own lives, does this revelation from the mouth of Jesus comfort or frighten us?

If you are like me, there is no shortage of situations in the world I do not understand. Despite this fact, I take comfort in knowing while I cannot always discern motives or circumstances, I am not given that responsibility. My role is not to judge or commentate or dismantle the mindsets of those around me; my God-given task is to love others and to serve in ways that both help them and honor God. It is important to realize that neither you or I are alone in this calling- for all the negative things that are often out front in our world, there are countless actions of faithfulness unknown to you and me, yet fully known to God.

The revelation of who we truly served is one aspect of final things that is going to surprise and shock many. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells His hearers in refusing to help others we have in reality refused to help Him, and in serving others, we have actually served Him. One aspect of this passage that is often overlooked is the fact that neither group, those who refuse nor those who help, knew that their attitudes and actions toward “the least of these” were their responses to Jesus Himself.

Jesus comes to us in the circumstances of our daily lives and in the people who cross our paths- in the sick, the broken, the lonely, the hurting, the fearful, the abandoned, the addicted. We are not commanded to accomplish great, impressive feats for others, but we are called to faithfully take action in the opportunities placed into our trust.

No good that we do is ever lost or ever wasted. Even when the external reactions we see appear mixed, small, or hostile, there is value in giving our lives in submission and service. The best part of spiritual work is the part that is known within our hearts and visible only to God. Better to do small actions with good motives than pridefully seek praise and recognition for the good that we do. There will many saints unknown to history who will be rewarded for graciously offering a cup of water in the name of Christ while others who have been praised for piety will be sent away empty.

If we can come to appreciate that no action is unseen by God or forgotten by Him, we can begin to cease striving for others’ constant approval. We can work without fanfare and without the need for acclaim knowing that what seems small and hidden now is fully seen by our good Father.

We usually think of hidden things being revealed in the sense of the classic expression, “your sins will find you out.” While it is true that judgment will reveal the darkness in us all, it will also reveal the many people who have served in quiet, humble, seemingly-forgotten ways and, sometimes without fully realizing it, were serving Jesus all along.

As a disciple, my awareness that God sees me and knows my deepest motivations should cause me to live in such a way that each person I meet can come to see the presence of Christ in all I say and do.