"God will raise me up."*
Easy to understand, but it can be much harder to believe.
I hope I'm not the only person who has an internal dialogue in my head about where I am, where I could be, where I perhaps 'should' be and, of course where God wants me to be. All in relation to the measure of my influence, responsibility and progress.
Nope? Just me.
And time and again I want to help God out. Hurry things on a bit. Just to give Him a little hand making my influence larger and my responsibility greater and my progress faster. He is quite busy after all.
So it's east for me to end up shrouding self promotion in more appealing ways: 'We are blessing/resourcing/equipping/encouraging the church' - rather than 'flogging our latest song/CD/book/ministry'
But the more I think about what will really bless, resource, equip and encourage our churches, I have one conclusion: More of Him, more of the Spirit.
Books, CD's, Songs and ministries help. But only if they are full of Him and only if they point undeniably towards Him.
So when we feel like giving God a little hand raising up our products, efforts and ministries we can maybe think twice.... because....
The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. (1 Thess 5:24)
If I am called, really called, to lead worship for the thousands and write songs for the millions then 'He will do it'. It doesn't matter what I facebook or tweet or blog. It doesn't matter what marketing strategy I put in place. It doesn't matter what network I foster.
He is faithful and He will do it.
And He will do it in his timing.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. (1 Peter 5:6)
Check out Kim Walker-Smith from Jesus Culture talking about Self Promotion, amongst other things:
I'm with her on this. I've never asked to lead worship at anything. I've never sent an unsolicited demo of my songs to anyone. And yet I've still managed to lead worship at some cool stuff and had a bunch of my songs published and used.
So the first question is this:
'What do I most want?'
Is what I want whatever God has for me, no matter how it ends up looking (all of which will be good, and fulfilling and utterly satisfying)? Or is what I want influence, responsibility, fame, success, money, status, recognition or a whole manner of other temporary and fleeting satisfactions?
And if I can answer yes to the former, the second question is this:
'Can I wait for it?'
Can I stick out the months and years of not having what I want yet, or even deserve, because God's timing is perfect? I know I can. But I have to choose it. Again and again.
God will raise me up, of that I can be certain, so I can just... relax and enjoy the ride.
dg
*This is a follow up to a post from November - 'Self promotion - Good, Bad or Ugly?' . Which if you read that may help you understand this post a bit better.
5 comments:
Some great thoughts David!! Completely with you!
Very timely, I've been thinking about these things a lot myself recently after the God @work course at Trinity. I'm erring on the side of doing more self promotion rather than less. If people don't hear about my photography business, they can't book me and so they lose out. ;-)
Promotion *can* be ugly, but I'm very much trying to be restrained and not push it too aggressively.
I think this is one of these things where we are called both to be active and passive at the same time. I.t. pray, wait on God and then go out and do everything we can with the talents, gifts, skills and ability that He gave us.
I think it's fair enough that worship leaders do some of the promotion themselves (while asking God to use them as He wills). It is your living after all. In the end it's where we place our trust and *why* we are doing it.
Marvellous musings mr. gate - promotion is a tricky line to walk - I guess it comes down to an integrity thing then? Am I doing this to shine the spotlight on God and giving him the Glory while being able to make a living doing it being a bonus? Or do I need to make a living so i'll make sure to give glory to God in a way that other people can easily access and "buy into".
I guess God can use someone's songs/creativity/outporings at anytime he chooses to help edify others as well as Him, though what possibly might be a litmus here is for someone to be just as happy and content with (for example) a song that gives all the glory and honour to him and is an honest heartfelt outporing, but never leaves the four walls in which it was first created. If that can be reconciled in the soul then the spotlight is maybe pointing in the right direction?
The flipside is obviously some songs are meant to be shouted out loud (by many people) to lift the soul and look to Him - we shouldn't {after all} hide our light under a bushel. If we are called to do something, we should run at it full pelt.
But, if we keep applying the filter of 'is this just as valid to me if it gives God the glory, but no one else would care?'. Maybe there lies the line.
Anyhow, cheers for your thoughts as always.
cheers guys! love your thoughts...
dg
Thanks for this post, a real encouragement.
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