To the Glory of God alone

(This is my very first post. It’s a talk I gave last spring to elementary students at Phil-Mont Christian Academy, my old stomping grounds. I chose it to remind myself on the launch of this blog that I want to keep the main thing the main thing.)

Every November, when my friend was a little boy, his grandmother sent their family a heavy box all the way from Germany stuffed with treats for Advent and Christmas. It held chocolate and cookies and a delightful confection called ‘marzipan’. Each Sunday, when the package was opened and shared, my friend’s mom would remind him in German, “Iss das mit Verstandt”, which is to say, “‘Eat that with understanding’. Don’t wolf it down. It is not ordinary – it is special.” So with little bites, my friend ate his sweets, making them last, holding them in his mouth to savor the flavors.

Today, let’s do the same for our busy minds, our distracted hearts, our weary spirits. Let’s take time to eat with understanding what God would nourish us with today. Let’s think about the fifth sola of the Reformation – “soli Deo gloria” – “all glory belongs to God alone”. This final sola is like a necklace, a central strand, that links together the other four simple jewels, or solas – remembering salvation is by grace alone, through Christ alone, by faith alone, as taught by the final authority of Scripture alone – and all for the glory of God alone.

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us. But to thy Name be glory.”

Let’s start off with a true story.

When I was teaching kindergarten, we once hatched the idea of having a Backwards Day, where we would do everything the reverse, or opposite, of what we normally did. So we walked backwards down the hall, wore our clothes back to front, ate dessert before our sandwiches, wrote our names backwards. You get the idea. We even read a book from end to start.

Oh, it was kind of fun, at first. But we also stumbled walking backwards, our heads hurt trying to think in reverse, and doing the opposite slowed us down. Honestly, it was a relief to return to doing school Forward.

When it comes to seeing the GLORY of God, to living for His glory ALONE, it, too, can feel like Backwards Day. That’s not how we tend to do things, is it? We are ever checking out how we look, hoping we measure up, waiting for someone to clap for us, give us a gold star, an award, a shout out, affirmation of one sort or another. We turn the spotlight on ourselves and keep it on ourselves, telling ourselves how amazing, incredible, and awesome we are, while waiting for other people to also realize it and say so. Like the little boy I met whose shirt said (in all capitals), “COOLEST KID EVER.” (Which, if true, means he’s the only one who can wear that shirt.)

This is not to say we don’t have worth, definitely not, for we were made in the image of God, and as such, our worth is inherent, under-the-skin, and down-to-the-bone. It doesn’t depend one second on how strong, fast, or cool we are (which is good news for when we are no longer strong, fast, or cool.) When it’s Backwards Day, we take legitimate encouragement and blow it out of the water, making it our ultimate goal. We make ourselves big, and God and others small. Who can be humble in an age of selfies? We were made to “be still and know that He is God”, but we hardly are — who can sit still? We were born to know Him, but getting to know a Person takes time, and how do we make the time? We have all these other things we are doing. We were made to enjoy Him forever, but enjoying Him, worshipping Him, doing life with Him won’t just happen automatically. It only happens when we – on purpose – again and again – look up and out instead of in and down, when we turn around so we can start going Forward.

But here’s the good news – we do have that choice! We can turn around. And every time we do, it changes everything. Proverbs tells us “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. It returns us to sanity to cultivate a proper fear of the Lord. To sit with understanding, holding this sweet truth in us, letting all the flavors go down deep – that HE is God and we are not, that He and His Name are holy, worthy of all honor. They are not punctuation, not throw-away words, but descriptive of Him, deserving of respect and reverence.

The GLORY of God is first and foremost about God Himself. He is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, in His wisdom, in His power, in His holiness, in His justice, and goodness, and truth. (Westminster Shorter Catechism #4) Try getting your mind around that.

Though we can’t ever do it completely, we can make a start. Let’s give it a try. Imagine we are on the grassy hill right outside those doors. In your mind’s eye, find a patch of ground where you can be alone. Now lay on your back and look up. Don’t say anything. Just be still and look.

Keep looking.

What are you seeing?

Those shifting clouds, that clear sky, that brilliant sun that hurts your eyes, those swooping birds, that double rainbow — God made them. It’s Show and Tell time. He’s showing you some of His power and majesty and glory in what you see.

Now flip over on your stomach and look down.

The blades of grass you feel, the dandelions and clover, that ladybug, all that lovely dirt, those rocks — again, more of God’s Show and Tell.

Feel that breeze? Hear those bees? The more you look, the more you can see.

Wait, there’s more — there’s YOU, and the friends scattered about on the hill with you, all of you His highest creation, made in His image, with a purpose for being alive: to know Him and glorify Him your whole life through. You’ve been thinking, feeling, seeing, breathing all this time, all in the one-of-a-kind body God gave you when He designed you. Your eyes and skin and hair are not your doing — rather, they are evidence of His artwork in action. Your ability to feel, walk, speak, write, think, sing, make music, dribble a ball, paint a picture….again, are all gifts from God.

And when we come back inside and open up His Word to us, we learn more of His glory, beyond what we can notice when we are outside. For here we hear of His extraordinary plan of rescue for self-absorbed, proud rebels, done in a way no one would have expected: through the willing sacrifice of His one and only beloved Son, Jesus — a Man of Sorrows, among other things, well-acquainted with suffering, who lived perfectly in our place and was executed in our place in the humility of the cross. Not a pretty boy who glided through life untouched by disappointment, suffering, deprivation, loneliness, testing. Rather, a Lover of your soul and mine, who came to seek and save the lost. He came to serve, to get His hands dirty loving the unloveable, welcoming the rejected, forgiving the repentant, challenging the self-righteous, and setting right injustice. He didn’t own an selfie-stick. Never posted His greatness on TV or social media. His heart was intent on pleasing and obeying God the Father, even in suffering.

So the GLORY of God is shown in the cross. The cross shows us the heart of God. He loved us all the way there. He forgives our sins. Jesus, too, showed us the full extent of His love (John 13:1) by willingly dying in our place.

This love that God showed on the cross must be received by each of us, one by one – it must become our own life’s story. Like a package delivered with our names on it, it only becomes ours when we reach out and accept it, cut the string, rip off the paper, and taste what’s inside for ourselves.

One good thing that comes out of living a long time, as you can see I have done, is that you get to meet all kinds of people and hear their stories. I could tell you stories all day about people – young and old and really old – that I have known in my life. And what is true of them is true of all of us in this room: we win or lose by the way we choose. We find what we look for. That’s why keeping the main thing the main thing is vital.

We can learn to stop our Backwards Days, and live and breathe instead for an Audience of One. We can ask God to change our hearts so that we more and more want to glorify Him, and less and less exalt ourselves.

We can unplug.

Lay on our backs more..

“Be still and know that God is God” more.

Did I mention unplugging?

I want to end with one more true story about a lady named Corrie ten Boom. She used to balance praise from people with worship of God this way: when she was praised for something she had said or done, she said, “I take every reward as if it were a flower. At the end of the day, I lift up the bouquet of flowers I have gathered throughout the day and say, “Here you are, Lord, it is all Yours.”

So maybe it would look like this:

“Wow, you’re strong!” “Thank you!”

“Awesome drawing!” “Thank you!”

“What a voice!” “Thank you!”

“You memorized all that? Wow!” “Thanks!”

“You’re smart!” “Organized!” “Fast!”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Because any good seen in us is another Show and Tell of God’s glory, as He helps us do stuff with the strength and skills He gives us, and His very breath in our lungs.

Then you tie it all with a ribbon, like this, and sign it in big letters:

SOLI DEO GLORIA