Praise, accolades, and pride, I believe, are all healthy in moderation. After working and striving toward a certain achievement or goal, I expect that receiving the award will come with a celebration. On the inside, I expect to feel some satisfaction, knowing that my persistence, dedication, and effort all paid off and resulted in this accomplishment. There is a deservedness that I can be tempted to feel as I reckon that my actions led to whatever the end, the peak, was in my mind. This is a black and white approach, but it is one that I have been recently confronted with.
As my final school year comes to a close and graduation grows close, I can feel that my accomplishments are directly linked to the hours I spent earning them. Sure, there is some correlation as with little to no effort, I would not be where I am today. There’s also the imposing danger of the individualistic view, since it is easy to say I did this, so this is my success to claim and to feel and to be praised for. These feelings sometimes attach themselves to success in my life, ranging from grades, participating in hard classes, making a cut for an athletic team, an internship, or job opportunity, or an award of recognition. In the next couple of months, I am graduating high school, and with that comes an announcement of next steps, where I will be attending college, and what my activities will include. There’s constantly more questions to answer, graduation announcements to send out, and dreams to deal with. It’s a lot to navigate, with the closing of one year transitioning into the next. The feelings are big.
As I have worked to maintain humility, I come back to the Word to balance and am also making an effort to keep my focus on the Lord. I do feel that I should be proud and pleased with my success, but not so much that it changes who I am or my heart. There is a fine line here, but as students and athletes and teens coming of age, we have grown from adolescents into people ready to take the next steps, literal and figurative, in our lives. We have done the work and put in the time, but accompanying us throughout this time were people, family and friends, and also the Lord. We were never left alone so we did not do it alone.
With that, the glory, celebrations, and rewards, are not all ours alone. It’s not, however, divided or fractionalized, rather completely ours and completely the Lord’s. We can be proud, while keeping our gaze and the sights of those around us cast on the Lord, turning the worship toward Him. Without Him, I for one can say that I would not be the person I am today or in the place I am today. Just as we say not our wills but His will be done, it’s not our glory, but His.
Turning to the Bible, Psalms 24:9-10 NIV reads, “Lift up your heads, you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty- he is the King of glory.” This is a truth, but also an invitation. The truth: the Lord Almighty is the King of glory. This cannot be disputed or contradicted. The invitation: lift your head. Cast your eyes heavenward or upon Him. Look for His hand in your life, and give all the glory to Him. For in the beginning, it all was His, and still today, it all belongs to Him.
As we reflect on what has been and look forward to what is coming, taking the next step in our lives on earth and in our faith journeys, join me in proclaiming the words of Psalms 57:5 (NIV): “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.”
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Bible Credit: biblegateway.com