Live on God’s team
When the four heavenly-realm passages are taken together an important paradigm emerges. The paradigm is one of teamwork with God the Father as the clear leader. The me running around in my town is not all that there is, but that me ripples the environment in God’s realm at the same time. Maybe it could even be conceived that the ripples are God’s kingdom. They are a real, excellent something far larger than our imagination. If we can learn to incorporate that widest-angle view of things God will be glorified and our moments empowered.
Antidote for insignificance
Have you heard of post-Olympic depression? It is an experience these elite athletes often catch after they reach that pinnacle and the Olympics are over. Even the gold-medal winners are subject to this. Maybe they are even more susceptible as once they have achieved such success what mountain is left? Their own world-records?
What goal is your current horizon? What goals have you achieved? Has it left you fulfilled? I am a Google Local guide and I post photos of various Augusta businesses on Google’s maps. I can see how many times people have looked at my images and I initially thought, “Wow! A lot of people are looking at these things. I may even get to a million views!” Well, right now I have one image with 1.5+ million views and overall I am approaching 6.5 million views. “Ok, I guess that is how that works,” goes my thoughts which promptly rush on to “What’s next?”
So my “next” becomes achieving the next Google Guide level (which is hard) or making panoramas (and posting them) or 3D models (and trying to figure out how to garner some praise or a social media like from them). There is a sniveling something that runs around my mental feet. It tends to mock me here or there with little reminders. “Ok, what’s next?” Or, “maybe I could start selling some of my footage.” But it never stops, “Ok, what’s next?” is the perennial question among the projects.
There is an important commonality from these things: each garners its value from the praise of others. It is more than money, more than fame. It is very, very personal. It is comparison ridden, and the comparisons don’t come with permanent badges. I was driving from my morning assignment at an operating room at the Augusta State Medical Prison to Augusta University I had one of Dani Pettrey’s Alaskan Courage books reading to me. A couple of characters got to talking about Jackie Gleason, trumpets and acting. One of the main characters was lamenting that people nowadays only knew him as an actor. Gleason’s musical legacy was forgotten by half and Gleason himself by many others. What? I was among the forgetters. I knew the name, but not the legacy. A quick scan through Wikipedia will point out his wide influence, “back in the day.”
If anyone wants a lasting legacy beyond “the day” they need to choose different horizons. The heavenly realms were Paul’s horizons. God is the best audience. If we hitch ourselves to his team, play the things of life for him then is our lasting legacy. That is an antidote for insignificance.
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