Not My Glory
“But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, ‘Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk?” Acts 3:12
In this passage, Peter saw a lame man begging on the way to the temple. Not doubt remembering Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan, Peter stopped to help. He did not have money to give the man, but he was able to be used of God so that the man would walk again. The people around him all ogled him as though somehow, he had done a miracle. Miracle had indeed been done, but God had done the miracle.
When Peter noticed that the people were paying too much attention to him, he told them that it was the power of God and not his power. He wanted to make sure they knew that God was the only One Who was qualified to receive glory. Jesus Christ, God the Son, had been the source of the power and Peter wanted them to know it.
I was reflecting on this after a busy and rough day on Easter. It seemed like from Saturday evening to Sunday evening, it was one challenge after another. On Saturday Night, we streamed a copy of the Prince of Peace Pageant from the Holy City of the Wichitas from 1949. Prior to the streaming event, I arrived at the church to get ready and noticed that one of our projectors did not come on in the sanctuary. I worked on everything I could think of from the floor and the had to go get a tall ladder to climb up the nearly 20 feet to reset it manually from the connection. I also noticed that the computer that stored the video would not talk to the computer than needed to stream it. I had to work on that.
On Sunday morning, I awoke to realize that it was raining, and our drive-in Easter Sunrise Service had to be cancelled. We streamed a service from under an overhang. It was not quite the same and the service stuttered on the connection a few times disconnecting people.
As we moved toward our 10:45 main service, the computer glitches were just beginning. We had sound through one side of our streamer and then it progressed to no sound. We had no sound from our board and then no internet! I have to admit I did not handle it very well and made a big deal out of the struggles.
We shifted over the stream from my phone that was set up to stream to our multiple venues, but the app wouldn’t let me stream again because we had just streamed the sunrise service. I had to mess with it for a while and it was time for the service to start!
We started late, did not have a steady mount for the phone, so it should terribly as we traded off from person to person. I was distracted to say the least!
I worked on the computer and got everything running again. Sunday Evening, during our devotion time, we lost internet again a few seconds into the devotion and had to make more adjustments. It was a mess all day long!
As I was stewing on this (and to be honest, having a bit of a pity party), I came across this verse and I felt the Lord speak to my heart and say, “It is not about you, Jack. It is about Me. I got my word out today. I did my work in people’s hearts. I could have done some in yours, if you were not so distracted.” As I dwelt on what I felt He had said to me, I realized that I wanted everything to go smooth so that I could feel like I accomplished something. He allowed things to go awry so that I would realize that it is not about me. It is always about Him.
Reading this, you might think me a heel and this is not an area in which you struggle. Here is a quick test. If someone doesn’t thank you, do you get upset? If you are not picked for the team, chosen for the promotion, or appreciated for what you do, do you get mad? Hurt? Frustrated? Perhaps, like me, you also need to realize it is not about you. It is always about Him. We must get that or take another lap around the desert.