In the Interest of Greatness

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Ephesians 2:10)

Several years ago, the Tyler Chamber of Commerce had its yearly banquet in which awards were given to distinguished businesses and individuals. One of the highest awards was for the most "charitable and caring community leader under the age of 40." The young man who received the 2014 award was a humble individual who made this statement, "I learned from my personal mentor that life would fly by in the blink of an eye, and the most significant thing we can do is to find ways to make our life important, not for ourselves, but for others." -simple concept, extraordinary results-

Don't let yourself believe that there are no heroes left in this world! There are many men and women in this generation and in each generation over the past 250 years of our country who have literally been willing to lay down their lives for one another. And we owe them a great debt. Faith in God seems to be the common denominator for each "great person". Faith was the key for the award winner mentioned above just as it was for the Vietnam captive, Robbie Risner, who used a wood dowel to painstakingly wear a hole through an 8-inch concrete wall. He accomplished this excruciating task so that he could share his faith in Jesus Christ with the man in the next cell, a man who later died. Faith was also the driving force behind the elderly church woman at St. Paul's Methodist Church who decided to start a an after school program for the neighborhood children. (This program would later became the seed from which a foundation arose providing medical, dental, food and clothing assistance.) Folks commonly think we have to possess extraordinary abilities to be important to someone else. But all great people begin and finished their Godly work within their own personal context, using limited resources and taking advantage of small windows of opportunity.

The Apostle Paul’s admonition to become slaves to one another is a concept largely forgotten, but so needed in our world today. We are occassionally reminded that God has created us to be important to someone else:

I personal love the great quote by the founder of the Methodist movement in England, John Wesley:

"Do all the good you can,

by all the means you can,

In all the ways you can, In all the places you can,

At all the times you can, To all the people you can,

As long as ever you can."

Likewise, The Salvation Army motto for its women's auxiallary sums up what should be our personal mission each day, "Doing the most good." Simply put, our task is to remember the question, "Are we doing the most good in our corner of the world -through the name and the power of Christ?"

Remembering our heritage is crucial in reclaiming greatness:

Most Americans are descendants of those "huddled masses yearning to be free" that Emma Lazarus wrote about several generations ago. Her words are inscribed on our Statue of Liberty that stands proudly in the harbor of New York City to welcome millions of immigrants to America. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

If you want your world, your nation to be great, then the beginning point is your willingness to welcome and help those around you; let your faith make you great!