Published October 18, 2017
HOW TRUE GREATNESS REQUIRES STEPPING DOWN FROM SELF
I am pretty sure you can name the first President of the United States (37 years of experience in classrooms and pulpits has taught me to be cautious, though!). However, I doubt that most of you could name Presidents nine through 15. Yet, every one of them was the President of the Unites States, a bigger and more powerful public role than most of us will ever step into. Forgotten. They just didn’t make the same big splash as President Washington.
If United States Presidents are forgotten, how much more forgettable must you and I be? It is easy to feel small and insignificant in a culture that seems to define greatness in terms of who or what makes the biggest public splash. Some days it is tempting to think, “Wouldn’t it just be easier to relax and just let those who, by birth or through their connections, would be able to do something great?”
The alumni you will read about in this issue of “Summit Magazine” take an entirely different perspective on greatness! They step up to serve God, and then take another step, and then another. God is blessing their steps.
Greatness in Humility
Jesus linked greatness to childlike humility when the disciples asked him to identify kingdom greatness in Matthew 18. Knowing your place, your role, in preparing for Christ’s kingdom marks true greatness. Children are dependent on parents. Great believers are dependent on God. They are willing to step up to difficult assignments of service and to reach into dangerous places where Satan’s work is blatant and horrifying.
Nearly 150 years ago, C.T. Studd was born again. Almost immediately, he stepped up to serve God and gave away the huge inheritance that he thought would hinder his progress. Then he reached out and invested his life in evangelism in China, then India, and then Africa. Before his death, he recounted some of the key choices he had made, attesting, “My only joys therefore are that when God has given me a work to do, I have not refused it.” That is the sort of humility that Jesus described in Matthew 18.
Greatness in Dependency
Jesus also linked greatness in Luke 9 to serving our peers. The disciples argued about which of them was the greatest. I have always wished I could hear a recording of that argument. Consider what had occurred before they argued, though. In that chapter alone, Jesus had empowered them to cast out demons and cure diseases as they traveled among the villages. Jesus had fed 5,000, and their only job was to pick up the leftovers. Jesus admonished them to take up their cross and follow him. Peter, John and James saw Moses and Elijah, then heard the voice of the Father identify Jesus as the Messiah. His voice commanded them to listen to Christ. Finally, a dad had to bring his demon-possessed son to Jesus for exorcism because the disciples were incapable of casting out the evil spirit.
Every event before their argument focused on the greatness and power of the Son of God. Everything the disciples had accomplished was clearly the result of Christ’s willingness to empower them. Their lack of capacity was clear. Yet they wrangled to discover which of them was the greatest. Jesus told them to serve their peers—each other—if they wanted to be great. That sort of humility honors God because we become channels of God’s grace to others. I would be tempted to look down my nose disdainfully at these hapless disciples, but they remind me too much of myself. All that was required of them was to put self aside, step up and reach out in the power and authority of Jesus. You and I have the same responsibility.
Greatness in Service
At Clarks Summit University, we believe that God still directs people away from self-focus into lives of enduring greatness. Our alumni are the proof of that. Pushing aside a sinful desire to have others focus on them, they invest themselves in service to Christ’s coming kingdom. They reach out, sharing the gospel, helping meet others’ staggering needs and offering humble service to others for Christ’s sake.
In the process, they model the sorts of service for God that we watch Jesus do in the Gospels. Love and kindness shown to needy people is like a cup of cold water given in Jesus name. What else would a Christ-follower do except to love others as Jesus did? Not everyone who ate the bread on the mountain followed Jesus. Only one healed blind man returned to seek Christ. But he served them anyway.
I hope you enjoy the glimpses into the careers and ministries of graduates who embody biblical greatness. I want us to be inspired to humble service, which is great because it is done for God.
Dr. Jim Lytle (’77, ’81, ’84) is a three-time CSU alumnus and the university’s 10th president
