Navigating Greatness

What makes a person great? Is it the number of championship rings he wears on his hand? How fast she rises in her career? The amount of money in one’s bank account? In this media-crazed, post-modern culture of ours, greatness is increasingly defined by the superficial, temporal, and the trivial. Yet, as disciples of the only One who is truly great, is there some other standard by which we can measure greatness?

Since God created man in His image, one way to tackle this question is to look at God’s greatness and see what principles trickle down to man. There are limitations to this approach, of course, since He is omnipotent, omniscient, and infinite, and the last time I checked, I was not any of those. Nonetheless, I’ve found that there are some intriguing parallels to consider.

In all of God’s dealings with the world, arguably the two most significant acts He has ever done is to (a) create the world and (b) serve the world by becoming a man in the person of Jesus Christ and dying on the cross for our sins. If these are the two climatic activities of God in His relationship with man, isn’t it possible that these acts also serve as models for us? Perhaps you and I can share greatness when we create and serve in His name. (Or, as J.R.R. Tolkien used to say, a more theologically correct term for human creation is “sub-create” since God is the only one who truly creates ex nihilo, from nothing.

This fact was brought home to me while watching the A&E/BBC movie Longitude , the story of John Harrison, an 18th century English clockmaker who discovered the solution to the age-old “longitude problem”— determining a ship’s longitudinal position while at sea. I loved the film, but what has remained with me since was a statement at the film’s end reflecting on Harrison’s accomplishment:

What makes a man great? A man may be great in his aims, or in his achievements, or in both, but I think that man is truly great who makes the world his debtor… who does something for the world which the world needs and which nobody before him has done or known how to do.

Just as Harrison “made the world his debtor” by inventing a special timepiece that solved the longitude problem, so you can do the same when your creative efforts or servant heart fills a void left empty before you came along. For in the end, perhaps living a life of true significance is achieved only when you create or serve in Jesus’ name.

The Four Verbs Of A Disciple’s Walk

Nearly all of life’s activities for a Christian disciple can be boiled down into just four verbs: create, serve, survive, and consume. Let’s explore each of these four action verbs to determine their relevance to your Christian walk.

Create

We have a creative God, one who created the earth and the skies out of nothing, filling it with boundless diversity and imagination. The Lord has given many people this gift of creation and discovery, whether it be writing a song, preparing a sermon, authoring a book, discovering the law of gravity, or finding an answer to “longitude” problem. Throughout history, the human race has been indebted to “creators” like Michelangelo, Sir Isaac Newton, C.S. Lewis, and Isaac Watts. You and I not only owe much to these all-time greats, but to great people closer to home as well – my pastor for his piercing messages each Sunday or my wife when she exercises her artistic talents.

To create something out of nothing and to make a discovery heretofore unknown are God-breathed activities, divined and ordained by the Lord – both for this world and the one to come. In doing so, we give God glory by revealing more of His nature, truth, and creation to others. In Longitude, John Harrison reflects this same attitude when talking about his motivation for his life’s passion:

Why did [God] encourage me to build the perfect timepiece in the first place? For the blacksmith to start work five seconds earlier or later? Or was it to give us the ability to explore His creation in safety? To move without fear in the space He has given to us to inhabit.

Serve

Not every disciple is called to create, but all disciples are charged to serve in one manner or another. Serving is the second God-breathed activity, for when you serve, you are doing a task that someone – be it your spouse, neighbor, or a hungry child in Haiti – needs for you to do.

Striving for greatness may perhaps sound self-centered and contrary to the attitude of a servant’s heart. But for the earnest disciple, the desire to be great need not be an ego-centric obsession. Instead, our motivation should be greatness in God’s eyes, not the eyes of the world; to create and serve for His acclaim, not for the applause of others. Ten Shekel Shirt sums it up well in its song “Great”:

Greatness in this world is different than greatness in your eyes
To love my enemies
To serve others until I become the least
To be genuine in my love for others and for you is to be great.
To be great in, great in your eyes, is my dream
To be the one who makes you smile is everything

(Note: Lines in lyrics rearranged for this purpose.)

Survive

Survival is how I’d classify the 9-to-5 life. We work our jobs to survive – to place food on the table, put a roof over our heads, and send the kids to college. I am not deriding those of us (like me) who are working in the marketplace, because God calls us to these roles. And, if our motivation is pure, we give glory to the Lord while doing this work.

One of my favorite lines from the film Chariots of Fire speaks to that fact: “You can praise the Lord by peeling a spud if you peel it to perfection.” In other words, no matter what we do – even a task as lowly as peeling a potato – we give glory to the Lord when we do it to our utmost. Thus, for many of us not in full-time Christian service, one of our major charges is to “survive” in such a way that gives glory to God.

At the same time, we should not get confused and believe that surviving is the equivalent to creating or serving, because it is not. In the end, neither you nor I will ever make the world our debtor simply by surviving.

However, holding a secular job need not prevent us from creating and serving. Take John Harrison, for example; he was a carpenter by trade and for years had to continue that trade to provide for his family, while he worked at night to create his maritime timepieces. Harrison is not unique: most people who create and serve in God’s name do it in time they manufacture, apart from their normal work day hours.

Consume

The final action verb that disciples undertake is “to consume”. Consuming is any activity that is inward focused, whether it be eating, watching TV, reading a book, appreciating art or music, vacationing, or pursuing a hobby. Just as we have to eat to survive, so too consuming is an integral, required part of a disciple’s walk. One needs to receive before being of any use to others, just like one cannot run a marathon on an empty stomach.

Having said that, remember that even godly and honorable activities like studying Scripture are inbound activities, and do little good to anyone else if the fruit of this activity remains on the inside, hidden from the world.

Breaking The Survive-Consume Cycle

A disciple’s life is a balance between these four verbs; survival and consumption should be offset by our efforts to create and serve. Unfortunately, many in the world today are in a Survival-Consume cycle – putting all energies into surviving and consuming, yet consuming so much that even more work is required to survive. In this cycle, little effort is given and little energy is left for outbound endeavors.

Seinfeld , the popular TV sitcom in the 90s, had a foursome of characters that personified this self-absorbed Survival-Consume lifestyle. In one episode, the four made an effort to “make a difference” by volunteering and serving others, but that enthusiasm faded quickly when it proved uncomfortable to them, so they went back to their normal life routine. How often do we fall into this same trap of ravenously consuming life rather than creating something original or serving others around us?

In addition, look to “recycle” the energy that you spend on consuming, turning it into a fuel for an outbound opportunity. After you watch a great film or read a book, imagine how it can be used as fodder for a sermon, Bible study, or in a Christ-leading discussion with a neighbor. Or, when you are camping, determine how this love of the outdoors can be utilized as a vehicle for serving people in your church or community.

Life is fleeting. An entire lifetime can go by without doing anything of true significance. Working to survive is no more than treading water. Consuming fills your storehouses, not the world’s. But creating and serving in His name produces greatness – on occasion, in the eyes of this world, but always in the eyes of our Lord and Savior.

Make the world your debtor. Harrison’s timepiece is ticking.

Originally published in 2002.