My parents pastored a small church right outside of Baltimore, and I grew up in a great home. But for a good part of my life, I believed I was mediocre. The Enemy had whispered in my ear that there wasn’t anything significant or special about me. But from when I was 16 to age 23, God took me on this journey of discovery. I learned he had put greatness inside of me. I want people to realize that God has put greatness inside of them, too.
We all are made in the image of a big God, and a big God doesn’t make mediocre people. But here’s the problem: The world’s path to greatness is self-promotion. It is competition. It is putting other people down. It’s manipulation. Those methods are ungodly. There is nothing wrong with wanting greatness, but Jesus said that if you want to be great, make yourself a servant of all.
We are prone to seek greatness for our own sake rather than to glorify God in it. If we try to pretend like all of our motives are pure, then we’ll never be able to address the inconsistencies in us. We need to accept our humanity and the fact that we have a propensity toward our sinful nature. And part of that humanity is that we care about what other people think of us, even though we shouldn’t. We look at somebody else, and we want to be better than them. We have to acknowledge that this is a part of our nature, and then do the work to consistently turn over that sinful nature to God instead of just pretending it’s not there.
We need the spiritual maturity to realize we don’t have competition in the kingdom. We’ve got to lock our eyes on Jesus, not on the person running in the lane next to us. Just imagine we’re all in track and field. The only problem is, one pastor is running the 100-meter dash, and another pastor is running the 400. Two completely different approaches, two completely different finish lines.
God has uniquely made us for a purpose, so we really can’t compare my wins to somebody else’s wins. Not everybody is going to lead something or build something or have massive influence in the world’s eyes, but everybody should get to the place where they feel internal fulfillment and a peace that they’re doing exactly what God has called them to do. If we don’t get to that place in our lives, it doesn’t matter how successful we are in the world’s eyes, we will never truly be content.
The future of the churches we lead rests on us settling this wrestling match with greatness in our lives. We’ve got to make sure our motives are healthy and our passions are surrendered to God. Then we’ve got to make sure we are maximizing all the potential God has placed inside of us, because for believers, they need a role model who is maximizing all that God has called them to, so they can go ahead and do the same in their own lives. And for unbelievers, their future is in the balance.
Stephen Chandler is the senior pastor of Maryland-based Union Church. His debut book is Stop Waiting for Permission: Harness Your Gifts, Find Your Purpose and Unleash Your Personal Genius (WaterBrook).
