More Than All We Ask or Imagine

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A decade ago, God moved in my heart to see Indonesian believers transformed in His love, equipped to be leaders, and empowered to become a force of influence for His Kingdom. From the beginning, the dream was to launch a school that would gift the world with world-changers. This school would become a laboratory where aspiring teachers would come from all over Indonesia to hone their teaching skills.
 
Our primary targets of influence were the arts, media, athletics, medicine, entrepreneurship and education.
 
Now all these years later, I pause and survey the landscape.
 
 
I recall the winding journey that God has carried us through. I’m astonished to see that our little school of 450 students has already produced kids who are aspiring to be filmmakers, actors, teachers, physicians and the like. A Charis student won the Indonesian version of American Idol. Another is a masterful jazz guitarist.  Each year Charis students perform a Shakespeare play. Our students have created films that won national awards. A senior this year plays the leading role in a film called “Tendangan Dari Langit” (Kick From the Sky) which has been showing in theatres all across this country. One of our graduates recently came back on campus for a visit. I asked him what he is studying in college, and he replied, “biomedical engineering.” I asked a 9th grader to share her aspirations with me. She replied that she wants to be a journalist “… so I can someday be a voice of influence in the media.”
 
And so on.
 
Even more amazing to me, is the caliber and faith of the people God has brought together. Whether it is our generous donors, our faithful prayer warriors, teacher trainers and specialists, God is gathering together a group of peope with startling abilities and inspiring faith. Just last weekend, a donor gave thousands of dollars worth of instruments to our youth orchestra. God is on the forward edge, way out ahead of us, blazing the trail. He is the our leader and our recruiter. My main role in all of this is to envision, equip, empower and then get out of the way.
 
A few years ago it occurred to me that God had created everything that I had dreamed for, and more. He seemed to be saying, “Paul look around and see that everything you have asked for is before you. The only limits to what I will create are the size of your dreams.” Should I really be surprised to see what God is doing? No way! God has always revealed his creativity by imparting dreams, then weaving them into hearts, events and lives to become a living reality. Glory to God. "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, Amen!" Ephesians 3:20

Glorious Whoa

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I’m attending some meetings in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia this week and while here I had a chance to visit K.L.’s most famous landmark, the gloriously tall Petronas Towers.

It brought back a memory from a few years ago when on the way to an international conference, our family and some teammates had 20 hours of transit time in this diverse city of Indian, Malaysian and Chinese cultures. We had just enough time to catch some sleep at a hotel near the airport, go into town for a meal, and get back to the airport in time to catch our flight.

The meal part excited me the most, because it was going to be a Tex-Mex meal, something that Texans living in Southeast Asia long for with all their Lone Star hearts. It had been at least two years since we had set foot inside a Mexican restaurant, and right smack dab in the middle of this sprawling Asian Metropolis rests an oasis of chips, salsa and fajitas: Chili’s Restaurant.

We were willing to splurge for the heavy taxi fare to get into town from the far-away airport and feeling pretty giddy en route. Ahead in the night light we could make out the city lights of K.L., and rising above them stood the gleaming Petronas Towers, which used to be the largest man-made structure in the world. The Chili’s is located in a large mall under those gargantuan sentries, which shone as a lighthouse of hope for our empty bellies that evening.

Before we entered the mall, my small children and I gaped at the Petronas Towers mega structure from the outside. They dominate the skyline at 1,483 feet, 88 stories of sheer bright height. I had seen pictures of these famous towers, of course, but standing next to these impossibly tall buildings took my breath away. I was stunned. I just couldn’t imagine anything man-made being so very…tall.   Tall is a pathetic understatement. Bathed in bright light, these towers looked to reach all the way to heaven, like some kind of angelic Jacob’s ladder.

I invited my kids to lie down at the plaza in front of the towers and to look up and marvel with me. My embarrassed teammates with us that evening ducked out of sight under a portico as Malaysians walking through the plaza glanced at the strange family on the ground gawking unashamedly at their iconic emblem.

As I gazed upwards, something in my spirit stirred and I just had to shout out. I spontaneously lifted my hands and exclaimed loudly, “I glorify you, Petronas Towers!”

“Daaaaad,” my children on both sides of me whined their protest, as if I just uttered some Christian blasphemy in this conservative M*slm nation.

I said it again, louder, to make my point. “I GLORIFY YOU PETRONAS TOWERS!”

They protested again. “You can’t say that!” my daughter demanded, defending her 8-year-old theology.

Was my utterance that evening unabashed idol worship or something wholly and Biblically correct?

The sense of glory is experiencing something so amazing and humility-producing that you gape open your mouth and utter, “Whoa.” Then the only natural response is to turn to the guy next to you and say, “Do you see this? … Whoa.”

A New Testament dictionary, a little bit antiseptically, defines glory as “always a good opinion concerning one, resulting in praise, honor and glory.” Maybe when you hear the word glory you think of something stale and religious, stained glass window other-worldly chubby angelic kind of stuff. But true glory is worth getting excited about from the deepest place of you heart.

The Petronas Towers took my breath away that night, making me even forget my longing for fajitas (temporarily). After I caught my breath again, I had to exclaim my “good opinion” regarding it to the people next to me. I felt compelled to glorify those shiny beacons of light. I explained the theological semantics to the kids and they seemed to feel a little better. After that wonderful yet awkward experience we woofed down a lot of chips and salsa and my kids delighted in free Coke refills (something unheard of in Asia). A truly glorious evening.

When Jesus takes your breath away, when you really experience Him, like in those moments in worship when you are carried away to the very courts of heaven, something deep inside you wants to scream out: This one is worth knowing! I would gladly lay my life down for this King! Jesus you are everything to me!

Look up to heaven today, past the tallest man-made tower you could ever imagine. Connect with Jesus at a deep heart level, enough for Him to take your breath away.   His Glory will call out to yours.

Whoa.

The Altitude of Gratitude

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Want to know the secret of happiness….right here, right now?  In this audio podcast, Paul Richardson and Mike O'Quin have a fun discussion about how to exercise our gratitude muscles to get to new place of perspective in life.

Click below to hear this discussion or subscribe to this free podcast by searching for "Faith Activators" on the iTunes Store.

Altitude of Gratitude

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What are the Qualities of an Effective Leader?

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Excerpt from interview by Janet Sullivan with Paul Richardson
 
What are the qualities of an effective leader?
 
In my perspective, leaders are people who are being drawn by something beautiful and tantalizing that awaits them in the future. Whether it be a prototype school, winning a championship, or experiencing a world without poverty, leaders surrender themselves to a cause greater than themselves. When others are caught by the same cause, they also take steps of faith to enter the battleground of creativity. In time, the vision becomes a movement. The movement materializes as the vision becomes reality. All along the catalyst of the movement is what I call a leader.
 
Many qualities combine to make effective leaders, but I feel that effective leadership is rooted in two primary qualities. These qualities are not often encountered together in the same person, but when they come together, they make the world’s greatest leaders.
 
First, leaders are not satisfied with the world, or some condition in the world, as it is today. There is a deep restlessness within, an angst, an urgency to engage the current circumstances and enact change or to bring about an effect. The actual source of this dissatisfaction is love, and love is more powerful than highly enriched uranium. The opposite of love is apathy. Love gives rise to an energy within, an urgency to remake the world. This desire to remake the world is the engine inside of a great leader. It is this quality which people sometimes refer to as “passion,” or “drive.” Jesus did not enter the villages of Palestine as a tourist. He was an activator. Wherever he went, he brought healing, transformation and hope. The lame walked, the sick were healed, and the blind could see. Jesus was a man on a mission. He most definitely was driven from within to see the world restored. Leaders who have this internal motor running are able to make great sacrifices on behalf of their cause, to step into the unknown, and lead others into the creative process in spite of great risk, potential suffering and loss. Very few people care about much of anything beyond themselves, their comfort, pleasure and safety. This is why true leaders are rare. Many appear to be leaders until they encounter resistance. Their primal instinct to survive overcomes love. Vision melts away under fire and the movement dies. Great leaders, however, are willing to be nailed to a cross on behalf of their cause.
 
Second, leaders have the quality of persuasiveness. People who accomplish great things alone are amazing, but they are not leaders. When Usain Bolt shattered the world record in the 100 meter sprint, he was not a leader. But when thousands of Jamaican children saw Usain Bolt run, then went outside and started running, Usain Bolt became a leader. This persuasiveness is not an external attractiveness or persona. Rather, there is a hope and faith within that inspires others, energizing a growing movement with a vision. Whether a leader’s persuasiveness is based in his or her expertise, knowledge, determination, experience, faith, hope, or love, when a leader speaks, people want to listen. The leader may not be “likeable” or have an extroverted persona, nevertheless there is something about or within that person which causes others to want to be around them, emulate them and follow them.
 
Other qualities come to mind. Effective leaders don’t take themselves too seriously. Effective leaders are great listeners, and are tuned in to how people are feeling. Effective leaders never panic. They stand up with confidence, clarity and faith in the midst of a crisis. Effective leaders embrace constructive criticism, and see the most difficult people around them as “editors,” rather than as “enemies.”

Honor – Part Three

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Recently I was trying to wedge my motorcycle into the tight bike parking area of our local grocery store’s parking lot. There was a tree one one side, a car on the other, and in the middle an older lady trying to get on back of a motorcycle which her daughter was driving. Before she could get on she was struggling to get all the grocery bags strapped to the bike and all around her, and it was taking a while before they could get it all saddled up and take off. The parking lot attendant was trying to help them.

It was a busy day. I was coming from one appointment and already late for another meeting. I was planning to swing by the store, grab a few things, and be on my merry fast-paced way again.
 
But here I was being forced to wait. So I did what you would have done. I revved up my motorcycle a couple of times so they could get the hint. Vroom Vroom. Hurry Up.  The mother-daughter duo glanced up at me anxiously, now even more frantic to take off, and made their way from the parking lot into the busy street. 
 
Actually I realize that’s not what you would have done. You would have smiled at them and waited patiently. But that’s not what I did. My soul was in too high of a gear to consider anybody or anything else but me, myself and my to-do list.
 
Honoring others requires that you down-shift your soul enough to value the person standing in front of you (or sitting on her motorcycle). Honor is a recognition that who they are and what they contribute is valuable.   
 
A Type-A personality friend of mine joked once that he sometimes treats fellow humanoids as “these things with eyes that get in my way.” Honor is the opposite of that. I like the way Gary Smalley succinctly defines it: "Honor is a way of accurately seeing the immense value of a person made in God's image.”[i]
 
Woah! That person that you will interact with today—spouse, child, parent, co-worker, boss, friend, neighbor, or stranger—every single one of them is made in God’s wonderful image. Will you honor them as such? Will you treat them as immensely valuable, important enough to slow down for?  
 
Paul wrote, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.”[i]  He dares give us this difficult mandate because we are following Jesus, “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant…”[ii]
 
In other words, if anyone had the right to act hurried and important, it was Jesus. Though He was in the very nature God, He didn’t throw his Son of God weight around but came to serve as a simple servant. We can too because He did.
 
Slow down and honor somebody today. Marvel at them as an image bearer of God.  Smile at them and wait patiently. 
 
[i] Gary Smalley, “I Promise: How 5 Essential Commitments Determine the Destiny of Your Marriage,” Thomas Nelson, 2006

[ii] Philippians 2:3, NASB

[iii] Philippians 2:6-7, NASB
 
 
Related Posts:

The 4/14 Window

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In this audio podcast, friends Paul Richardson and MJ Perry talk about an innovative and dynamic conference they attended in Singapore recently which focused on how to reach, resource and release the "4/14 Window."  This is a phrase coined by Louis Bush, best explained in the movement's website:

"The 4/14 Window refers to the demographic group from age four to fourteen years old, which is the most open and receptive to every form of spiritual and developmental input. God is calling us to a new missional focus: the 4/14 Window golden age of opportunity to transform the world. God is calling us to radically change the way we view children and to respond to their strategic importance and rightful place in His Kingdom. This often ignored and suffering people group can be transformed into a precious window of opportunity. In God's hands, this enormous and largely ignored people group can become agents of transformational mission under the headship of Jesus Christ."  
 

MJ leads a team of graphic artists that made a stirring video for this international conference.  Click here to watch.

To learn more about MJ's ministry to bring discipleship and education to the ends of the earth, and how you can be involved or support it, see his website or contact him directly.

Click here to listen to the podcast: The 4/14 Window Podcast, or find us on iTunes by searching for "Faith Activators."

Thanks for listening and may God stir you with His heart for children.

Please comment by clicking "comments" above or the comment box may appear below.  We would love to hear how God is stirring you too!

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I Can Make You Happy…Right Now

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By Paul Richardson

Just saw a blurb on TV about a new book called “God Wants You Happy” by Father Jonathan Morris. Well, I’ve got GREAT news. I can save you the cost of the book, as well as the cost of a self-help seminar, or an hourly fee with a psych. Right here, right now, I can solve the planet’s quest for happiness.
 
Just buy my book and … haaaaa just kidding.
 
Now, my friends probably wouldn’t call me the happiest guy on the block. Nevertheless, I still believe I know the secret to happiness. All happiness. Period. No exceptions. Right now, I will permanently solve your quest for happiness at no charge.
 
Years ago I noticed something that got me thinking. I was visiting a village in Borneo. No electricity. Lots of runny noses. Flood season. Everywhere I looked was either under water, or smothered in thick, gooey mud.  I don’t really want to make you lose your appetite, but I must provide you with the full picture. In order for me to bathe in the river next to that village, I had to jump off of a dock which also happened to be the village toilet. I elected to bathe at night so that I wouldn’t have to see what surrounded me. In that particular village my friend Scott pulled some Frisbees out of his bag and started tossing them around. The place exploded with laughter and big, beautiful smiles. Barefoot kids eagerly swarmed around the new toys, while their parents looked on with grins as pure as the sky.
 
To me it became something of a philosophical question. “How is it that people with virtually nothing can be visited by such pure happiness, while people in another context have luxurious circumstances yet are perpetual whiners?”
 
Does poverty breed happiness? Not so fast. I’ve seen happiness in affluent backgrounds too, and I’ve seen plenty of disconsolation among the poor. Does being a Christian make you happy? Come on, let’s be honest. We all know perpetually glum Christians. I’ve known very happy people who are not Christians. To promise someone that if he believes in Jesus he will become happy is to participate in a myth that some Christians love to perpetuate for some odd reason.
 
So, it is clear to me that happiness is unrelated to circumstances. Happiness is most certainly unrelated to religion. But happiness is relative. Something causes happiness. What could that something be?
 
I believe the reason the villagers were happy is that the Frisbees were viewed as an undeserved surprise. If they had ordered and paid for the Frisbees, and expected the Frisbees, they would not have experienced the same fullness of joy. In other words, the people in that village were grateful for the Frisbees.
 
Gratitude. Yes, gratitude and happiness are actually the same thing. Always and without exception, everywhere and at all times. Happy people are always grateful. When people are grateful they are also happy. When people are ungrateful they are also unhappy. Unhappy people don’t experience “undeserved surprises” because inside their hearts, they feel they actually deserve more.
 
Want to be a happier person? Start seeing every little thing as an undeserved surprise. Start saying Thank You all the time, and really mean it. I guarantee you will become a happier person. Venture on a quest for gratitude, and you will find yourself becoming happier. Remind yourself that every breath of oxygen is an undeserved gift from God. All beauty around you is from God. Every bite of food is from God. Every friendship is a treasure entrusted to you by God. Unhappy with your marriage? Your root problem is that you think you deserve better, and that’s just not true. Believe for one day that you deserve nothing, and your spouse will become your heart’s treasure. Miserable with your job? Every day as you are driving to work, say to yourself, “I don’t deserve this job. It is a gift from God.” Do you have enough gas in your tank to get to work? Well, thank God for it. You deserve nothing, believe it. Heighten your sensitivity to God’s love and God’s grace, which is constantly all around you, touching you.
 
World’s quest for happiness solved.
 
Out.

Honor – Part Two

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In my last blog post I confessed that there have been times in my life, okay more than a few times, where I have wanted positive feedback for something I’ve done say like preach a sermon. “Hey great sermon!” Oh no, no, no, I give all the glory to God but yes, yes, yes, tell me more.

The dumb question here is who doesn’t? All of us desire recognition, from a small pat on the back for a job well done all the way to the full blown awards ceremony for a great feat. You woke up early, trained, competed hard, and now you’re being presented with a medal…it was all worth it. The applause you hear now on that platform you heard in your imagination long before you hit the finish line. In fact it gave you the gumption to keep going.
 
In the next couple of blog posts I want to look at what it looks like to honor one another, how to cultivate a “culture of honor” in our communities. But before we can offer honor to others we have to deal with our own hearts first. What do we do with our deep-seated desire for honor that makes us feel sometimes like a mixed bag of motives? Serving God and others with one eye on the mirror…how am I coming across here? Am I being recognized for my contribution?
 
All of us want to feel valuable, that what we bring to the table matters, that we are impacting the world somehow.   There’s nothing wrong with that…is there?  I put this question, “Is my desire to be honored carnal or legit?” to our alert blog readers and here are some responses:
 
“I guess the easiest way to answer that question is with another. Were you seeking to hear it for your own glory or were you looking to find joy in knowing that God was glorified through you?” – Tim Stewart
 
“We are bondservants that are supposed to honor the Father and the Son (John 5:23 and John 12:25-26). We are to totally surrender (die) ourselves and serve Him wholeheartedly and then if He chooses, the Father will honor us. Why seek the applause of just people when our Creator, Loving, Almighty God wants to honor us. Why eat white rice when New Zealand Steak and Sate is an option?” – Anonymous (but I bet it was someone from New Zealand)
 
“We all want and need affirmation at some level. From God, but also from people we know. The problem is when this becomes driving motivation in what we do.” – Blake McDaniel
 
“…If EGO is Edging God Out you do have a problem…” – Vernon Lock.
 
Well put. Well said. Jesus seemed to have harsh words for the religious higher-ups who loved the “place of honor”:
 
“Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.'”[i]
 
Let’s dig into this a little deeper. The key statement here is that their sole motivation for service was for “men to see.”  Jesus is definitely blasting away at their corrupt motivation, but I don’t think He is going as far as to indict the base desire we all have to receive honor. That need in your heart to feel honored is not going away anytime soon. The question is what do we do with that valid desire? If we angle ourselves to get into the seat of honor, Jesus said watch out:
 
“When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, 'Give this man your seat.' Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests.”[ii]
 
The way you go about meeting that valid need for honor is by humbling yourself.   The desire for honor is kind of like the desire for intimacy. A desire to have a deep connection with another human being is not wrong; it’s what you do with it that counts. If you cross a boundary in the pursuit of intimacy then you will face humiliation instead of honor.  In the same way, If you cross a boundary to claw your way to the place of honor, you will be humiliated.
 
Jesus once told His knuckle-headed disciples to stop arguing about which of them was the greatest (ya gotta love ‘em…so honest and transparent). He basically said, oh you want to be great? Here’s how to be great…learn to be a servant.  He didn’t squash their desire for greatness; he lifted them up to a higher value:
 
When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?”
 
(When an omniscient God asks you a question, they say, it’s not because He’s seeking information…)
 
But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
 
(Little thought bubbles over their heads, “Uh oh, this is going to be embarrassing…”)
 
Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
 
(Then Jesus hammers home the point with a cute little kid):
 
He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.” [iii]
 
Jesus shows us here the true pathway toward honor…it’s in honoring Him and others above ourselves. We don’t have to sweat it if we feel slighted because God sees our contribution. He is the one who does the ultimate honoring.
 
Orient your soul to heaven. Lord, You see me.  It’s okay whether I’m famous or obscure. Not only do You see me, but Your smile is on me, and one day You will reward me for how I’m living my life. That’s enough for me.
 
I’ve written about the “Judgment Seat of Christ” in some previous posts, and I don’t have the room here to unpack it but here are some previous articles to highlight this long-neglected source of high-powered motivation: The Final Smile, Magnum Opus, Undercover Boss
 
How do we find freedom from our mixed bag of motives? Live your life for an audience of one. A pat on the back is nice here and there, but it ain’t nothing compared to the applause of heaven.
 
Next post….If God is generous in honoring me, than I can be generous in honoring others…stay tuned…
 

[i] Matthew 23:5-7

[ii] Luke 14:8-10

[iii] Mark 9:33-37
 
 

Living an Original Life

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By Paul Richardson

Zoltan Dani is now the owner of a tiny neighborhood bakery in a sleepy village North of Belgrade. But Mr. Dani did not always enjoy such a peaceful and anonymous life. He happens to be the genius responsible for inventing a technological innovation which allowed a Soviet made missile to shoot down a US F-117 stealth fighter in May of 1999 over Serbia. The pilot escaped, but the billion dollar aircraft fell out of the night sky and was smashed into a zillion broken pieces across a field. "We used a little innovation to update our 1960s-vintage SAMs to detect the Nighthawk,” Mr Dani told USA Today in 2005. His innovation involved tinkering with electromagnetic waves.

I vividly remember reading about the downing of that Stealth fighter. On the front page of the L.A. Times there was a photo of Serbian farmers dancing on the broken wing of the world’s most technologically advanced aircraft. But what struck me most is what happened a few days later.

On May 7th, four U.S. cruise missiles simultaneously struck the Chinese embassy in Belgrade from four different directions, annihilating the building and killing everyone inside. Hmmmm. Could there be a connection with the downed stealth fighter?

Yes, obviously.
 
Although President Clinton apologized to the enraged Chinese government, and CIA officials claimed they had been using outdated maps, (Ahem, yeah right.) we can easily surmise about what really happened. The Chinese government, which for decades had been spying on U.S. military technology, pounced on the downed plane, paid off the locals for its parts, and trucked them to the Chinese embassy, storing them in the basement. No doubt U.S. satellites picked up the whole thing.
 
After all, China is the world’s foremost nation of knockoffs. I see plenty of them here in Indonesia. Fake Blackberries (called “Blueberries”). Fake Yamaha motorcycles and knock off laptops. The Chinese economy is making a killing off of imitation. They are the geniuses of the clone wars.
 
Look all around. There are creatives and then there are immitators. Originals and clones. There are forward thinkers and others trying to catch up. Kids who are ready for their exams, and those who look over the shoulders of their classmates for answers. There are pick and rolls, and then there are cherry pickers. Original sermons, ideas, books, plot lines and copycats.
 
I’ve been noticing something lately about God and the Bible. God never does the same thing exactly the same way twice. Only one Jericho. Only one kid kills a giant with a sling. And that kid refused to wear another man's armor. He killed the giant his own way. His God is the ULTIMATE CREATIVE. God never resorts to the knock off. His creativity is always new. Always fresh. Always a new song in the morning. A new WORD from his Spirit.
 
Can you get a feel for where I’m going with this? Take a fast growing church, for example. It was a movement. Powerful. All God. Holy Spirit. Miraculous. Ridiculously unexplainable. Only God got the glory. Sort of. Until an army of pastors of smaller churches swarmed around asking, “How did you do this?” “What is your secret?” Strategy? Technique? Methods? So the church threw conferences. They charged a fat little entrance fee. They used media, power points and stood behind microphones explaining their methods, and they went home and tried to imitate what they heard about. And of course that’s when the movement died.
 
How about you? Did you know there’s no one else anything like you? Seven billion people walking the earth, and there’s only one you. Why? Because the ARTIST made you, and the ARTIST only makes originals. He also has original ideas for you every day. He has a totally unique way for you. No more trying to be a knockoff. It’s fake, and everyone around can smell imitation. Be you. Listen to God. Be the person He made you to be.
 
An original.

Honor – Part One

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This past Sunday I shared the main message at a church service. Now this is embarrassing to admit, but afterwards I secretly wanted someone to come up to me during the post-service chit-chat time and say, “Hey Mike, good sermon…that really spoke to me,” or something like that.

In short, I wanted to be honored.

I wanted to feel that what I contributed was valuable, that it meant something to somebody. Here’s my question: was that secret desire to be honored okay? Or was it wrong, vain, a sinful thought I should repent from?

What are your thoughts? I am planning on launching into a series on the theme of honor over the next few blog posts. But I would love to hear from you first. Click on the word “comments” at the top of this article or the comment box may already appear below.

What say you?