Who is in Your Background?
Can you remember the winner of the:
- 2010 Nobel Peace Prize?
- 2008 Summer Olympics archery gold medal?
- 2011 Miss America pageant?
How about:
- the high school teacher who motivated you to be your best?
- the Sunday school teacher who told you about Jesus?
- the first person to take a chance and give you a job?
If you’re like me, you found it easier to answer the second group of questions. Why? Perhaps it has something to do with relationships. You see, it’s not the celebrities in the spotlight who change our lives; it’s the people who labor in the background of our lives. The ones who aren’t looking for attention, they just do what they’ve been called to do.
The Bible study class I teach ended last week. Some people call it my class. It’s not my class. It’s our class. During the year, 175 women from 50 different churches came together each week from September through April to study the Bible. This year we studied the gospel of Matthew.
Class members agreed to lead discussion groups, teach the children, and serve in administration. They offered to play the piano or greet attendees. They volunteered in the children’s classrooms and watched the leaders’ children. They monitored sound equipment and stepped forward to be our treasurers. They hosted fellowships and took attendance. And of course, they attended class each week.
The class thrived because none of these women sought the spotlight. But they were interested in developing relationships – relationships with the Lord and with each other. This week, they will share what those relationships meant to them: the power of women praying for each other, encouraging each other, and holding each other accountable. Most of all, they will share the blessing of pointing each other to the love of God and the salvation He offers through faith in Christ. They will do it because they have the assurance of the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit and the transformation His Word brings to each of us.
Their names won’t be printed or announced. Their reward may not come in this life, but it will come in the next…where it counts.Are we teaching our children and grandchildren the joy of laboring in the background or do we affirm their need to be in the spotlight? It’s difficult to teach them this lesson if we have not yet learned it ourselves.
Think about the people who labor in the background to bless your life.
Thank one of those people today!