The continuous fight for the fame

Have you ever made a suggestion or had an idea only to watch someone else get the credit for it? How did it make you feel? This happened to me recently with the church we attend and I can tell you how it made me feel...sad, frustrated, angry, hurt and most of all I wanted to be validated. I think the reason I felt so strongly about this was because it was a larger group of people, and I wanted to impress them. I wanted them to know I was the one with the idea so that they would continue to include me when they were making decisons. I wanted to make a good impression on them. I didn't need the pat on the backs or the accolade, but I did want the respect that would have come. I replayed different scenarios over and over in my mind how I would make it work. How I would set them straight. For almost a week this consumed me. After talking with my husband, Tim, he continued to remind me that the important thing was that the idea was leading to a better church and overall that was really what we wanted. It didn't matter who had the idea only that it had been considered, prayed about, and implemented. I knew he was right and resolved to let it go.

Last night I was reading Philippians 2:3-4 (NLT), "Don't be selfish; don't live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Don't think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing."

Immediately I was reminded about my idea at the church. My motives behind it were pure. I really was looking at how the church could be better and that is when the idea came into my mind. I didn't think I was doing it to make a good impression on others or thinking about my own affairs; yet, I realized when the idea was used and the credit wasn't given how much my sin nature did play into it. My motives weren't all pure. I wasn't being completely humble. I wasn't just concerned about the affairs of others.

How hard are these words of God through Paul in Philippians to live out? Honestly, if they weren't coming from Paul himself it would be easy to dismiss them. But at this point Paul had been put in prison, beaten, exiled, tortured all more than once for the name of Christ. He really was an example to us of how this looked and it was all because he was following the example that Christ left for him. Continuing in Philippians it says,

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. "

I know that my lesson is far from being over. I'm continuously desiring to make my name great-- to have the glory, the fame. My prayer is that God would help me to see those times and remind me of His sacrifice and example, and that I would learn to look at others through His eyes.

(Stephanie)