You want to be great? You have to love something more than greatness itself, something more than wanting to be great.
I’m a preacher by “trade” and by calling. Recently I held a Zoom call with dozens of preachers in the country of Mexico. To end our time together, I asked them this question:
“Do you want to know the secret to becoming a great preacher? Love a few things more than your preaching. If you love God’s Word first, you’ll grow into a great preacher. If you love God’s people first, you’ll strive for great preaching. If you love Jesus first, you’ll never be without a great passion to preach.”
That’s the secret to a great life, too. To being great in life.
Early this past Summer, I was taking my 18 month old foster son, Levi, for a walk. I rounded a corner when in my heart I heard, “I gave him to you, so that you wouldn’t burn out.”
I was stopped dead in my tracks. I was instantly offended at God. How could I burn out? Why would I let myself get to that point? God, don’t you know I pride myself on time management and my ability to prioritize what’s most important!
Yet, a few seconds later I was humbled and confessed that He must see something in me that I don’t see. That He must know something about my heart that I don’t know.
Without my knowing how or why, in giving me Levi, God has kept me from the trap of over-investment in ministry. From over-identifying with pastoring. My love for Levi has grounded me from losing touch with reality and what matters most in the long run of both this life and eternity.
Saying this doesn’t mean that I don’t love my other children as much as Levi. Far from it. But the point is that God knows exactly what we each need in every season of our lives to keep our feet on the path and are eyes fixed on “the prize”. And what we need is our loves in order.
If you love your work or your ministry more than your spouse or your children, likely everything will fall apart and everyone will suffer. But if you love your spouse and your children more or first, then your work and your love for your work will find its proper place in your life.
To every challenge we face as His disciples, Jesus responds with an insistence on intimacy. He says that we live on “every word that comes out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). I think He means “every word that comes out of the mouth of God THAT WE HEAR AND RESPOND TO.”
Being with Jesus is first, doing for Jesus is second. So underneath the challenge to live and respond to God’s word is a deeper one. “Peter, do you love me?” (John 21).
That is the question ministry, work, marriage, family, life – the pursuit of greatness of any kind in anything – begins and ends with. “Do you love me,” asks Jesus. “Because if you do, you will hear and love and obey my word. My words will make straight your paths and make clear your steps.”
In all things, Elim Grace, the goal is not to love other things less but to love Jesus more. If you love Jesus first, everything else will fall into its proper place and order and time and season. Even greatness.
Yes, I want to be a great preacher. But I don’t want to preach, because I want to be great. I want to be great, because I preach in season and out of season with a greater love for Jesus, His Word and for you than for myself or my name.
Yes, I want to be a great husband and father. But I don’t want to be present and involved in my home, because I want to be great. I want to be great, because I love them more than ministry and work and my own life.
In other words, I want to live the kind of life that, before I die, by God’s grace, I will say this to my wife and children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and, who knows, maybe even my great-great-grandchildren:
“I will die the kind of man I wanted to be”.
Be great. Therefore, love something more than being great.