Distracting

We have daily morning devotions as a staff here.  This particular day Pedro, our mechanic/maintenance man, was sharing a lesson with us.   Pedro happens to have an adorable toddler, who is always making his way around the room and then joyfully finding his way back to his father or mother.  This morning was no exception.

The boy started out playing with his father in the usual way, but then he began to notice that everyone in the room was looking his way.  He seemed to think that was pretty great, because he began to ham it up more and more.  He never realized that we were actually there to listen to his father.

This put me in mind of how followers of Christ must sometimes act.  In ministry, we stand near our Father (as we teach or serve or lead worship, etc.), and when people look to Him, we begin to think they’re looking at us.  We think, 'Hey, I must look pretty great.'  When we think the attention is on us, perhaps we even begin to look silly like the toddler, trying to do more and more to draw more and more attention to ourselves.

Unfortunately, that morning in devotions, there were those of us who stopped listening to the message Pedro was bringing us to watch the antics of his toddling son.   I think it likely that at times we as Christians succeed in drawing the attention away from the message of Christ and over to ourselves.

Let us remember our purpose.  In Whose strength we are able to do this work.  And turn to give glory to the One who deserves all the praise.