.back with thoughts.
.rose.
I never know quite how to respond to praise. I always treat a compliment like a projectile coming in sideways ... and dodge. I don't want the elation that accompanies a compliment given and received in sincerity because it's really a praise for God, not me.
It makes me think of the pufferfish - totally encumbered by it's own ... girth, and threatening to stick everything around it with those ridiculous-looking quills. And they're posionous, but enough fish analogy.
I'm a person of extremes and simplicities. So if I take that compliment to heart, then it's mine. I step between the praise and the Praiseworthy. I don't deny my membership in the theives' guild of which every man is a part. We see God's goodness and take what we can. It's verifiable, whether we mean to or not.
...
.?.
I'm sitting here reading about how a minster should humbly receive compliments by quietly diverting the glory to God (Humility, C. J. Mahaney), and I'm thinking, "So what about being encouraged?" Aren't those comments meant to encourage us? Or are we supposed to be completely inpenetrable?
Why are compliments given to us if they weren't meant to be FOR us in some way?
"Good job!"
"I was really ministered to by your words today."
"God has really used you in my life."
I know - I need - to be encouraged by other Christians, especially by those I share life with. I want to have cause to see God's goodness to me in allowing Him to serve Him and others in ways that produce results. Sometimes the only results we may see are those comments. I want more of them, for His sake and mine.
"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works," (Hebrews 10:24) I want to be stirred up like this. I want to love love and good works and want to do them more, to be used up on them. Why do you praise a child when he does something right? So he'll do it again! I want to receive praise and compliment as if it were the aroma of life. Real life. Spiritual life. Like the scent of a rose when you hold it to your nose and breathe deep. It speaks to you, touches you, and gives you pleasure for a moment. You praise God for having created something so simply marvelous. Maybe you grew the rose, but God gave it life.
There it is. The work of God.
It's in your hands.
And you want to smell it again.
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. [Matthew 5:14-16 (ESV)]
1 comment:
Compliments have always made me exceedingly uncomfortable, because I want to "own" them and feel good about myself. Pride seems to be a besetting sin so I tend to push compliments away in an attempt to "control" sin.
Recently I've decided that's not a very Grace-conscious position. If all good things come of grace & God's work, then I can't change my sinfulness by robbing other people of sharing their heart.
God gifts us with the joy of being a part of His work. He could have just done it all Himself, sanctifying His church without involving the rest of us. But like an ever-patient parent who lets the toddler trudge along carrying the tools, our Father involves us in the ministry of reconciliation and healing which is the outworking of the Gospel among men.
If my work blesses someone else, it IS the Spirit's hand, but it IS also mine. Such is the amazing synergy of Kingdom work.
And so a compliment for my ministry is a recognition of God's grace at work in me as well as in the person who was blessed.
I didn't understand that until I became a teacher and learned what it's like to have my heart explode with joy when seeing "my" kids do something well.
Post a Comment