It's Not About Me - Max Lucado [30]
Rather than demand a muffin from Bert, she brings a muffin to Bert. “I thought of you this morning,” she explains. “You arrive so early. Do you have time to eat?” And she hands him the gift.
En route to the elevator she bumps into a woman with an armful of documents.“My, I’m sorry. Can I help?” the daughter offers. The assistant smiles, and the two carry the stacks down the hallway.
And so the daughter engages the people. She asks about their families, offers to bring them coffee. New workers are welcomed, and hard workers are applauded. She, through kindness and concern, raises the happiness level of the entire company.
She does so not even mentioning her father’s name. Never does she declare, “My father says . . . ” There is no need to. Is she not his child? Does she not speak on his behalf ? Reflect his heart? When she speaks, they assume she speaks for him. And because they think highly of her, they think highly of her father.
MAY WE HAVE NO
HIGHER GOAL THAN TO
SEE SOMEONE THINK
MORE HIGHLY OF OUR
FATHER, OUR KING.
They’ve not seen him.
They’ve not met him.
But they know his child, so they know his heart.
By now the flight was ending, and so was my Hebrew lesson. Thanks to the rabbi, the third command shouldered new meaning.1
Paul, another rabbi, would have appreciated the point. He wrote: “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20). The ambassador has a singular aim—to represent his king. He promotes the king’s agenda, protects the king’s reputation, and presents the king’s will. The ambassador elevates the name of the king.
May I close this book with a prayer that we do the same? May God rescue us from self-centered thinking. May we have no higher goal than to see someone think more highly of our Father, our King.After all, it’s not about ... well, you can finish the sentence.
“You know how the story ends?” the rabbi asked as we were taxiing to a stop. Apparently he had a punch line.
“No, I don’t. How?”
“The daughter takes the elevator to the top floor to see her father. When she arrives, he is waiting in the doorway. He’s aware of her good works and has seen her kind acts. People think more highly of him because of her. And he knows it. As she approaches, he greets her with six words.”
The rabbi paused and smiled.
“What are they?” I urged, never expecting to hear an orthodox Jew quote Jesus.
“Well done, good and faithful servant.”
May God sustain you until you hear the same.
NOTES
Chapter 3: Divine Self-Promotion
1 Exodus 33:18; 1 Kings 8:10-11; Ezekiel 3:23; Luke 2:9; Hebrews 1:3; John 1:14; Mark 9:1-13; 2 Peter 1:16-18; Matthew 16:27; Revelation 21:23.
Chapter 4: Holy Different
1 Darren Brown, ed., The Greatest Exploration Stories Ever Told: True Tales of Search and Discovery (Guilford, Conn.: Lyons Press, 2003), 207-219.
2 Brown, Greatest Exploration Stories, 223.
3 Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness (Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 1978), 64.
4 Edward W. Goodrick and John R. Kohlenberger, Zondervan NIV Exhaustive Concordance, 2d ed., ed. James A. Swanson (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999), 1487.
Chapter 5: Just a Moment
1 Frederick Buechner, The Sacred Journey (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1982), 9, 37, 76.
Chapter 6: His Unchanging Hand
1 Rick Reilly,“Sportsman of the Year: Lance Armstrong,” Sports Illustrated, 16 December 2002, 56.
2 Rick Reilly,“The Life of Reilly: Pool Shark,” Sports Illustrated, 24 March 2003, 126.
3 “Barge Accident Cuts South Padre Island Off from Mainland Texas,” http://www.thetimesharebeat.com/archives/2001/ts/ttsept50.htm;“South Padre Island Bridge Collapse,” www.bridgepros.com/projects/queenisabellacauseway.
4 J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1973), 71.
Chapter 7: God’s Great Love
1 John Bishop, 1041 Sermon Illustrations, Ideas and Expositions, ed. A. Gordon Nasby (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1952), 213.
2 Rubel Shelly, The ABCs of the Christian Faith