The Big Question
Many years ago, in the late days of the 1900s (as my kids say), I set out on an epic voyage. After saving up a summer's worth of nickels and pennies from part-time jobs, I bought an engagement ring to give to my soon-to-be fiancé at her home in California. I saved up enough to buy the ring, stuck it in my pocket and proceeded through the relatively lax pre-911 airport security. I was heading out on an incredible adventure to pop the question to Kim.
For a 20-year-old at the time, this was, a big event. I mustered all the courage that I could, and we set out on the date we had planned. We would go see a movie and then take a magical and romantic stroll around a duck pond near her home. So, we went to the theater, sat down to watch the first Mission Impossible movie, (which I thought was an appropriate selection, considering what I was about to do), and enjoyed the heroic exploits of Ethan Hunt.
We then proceeded to the duck pond and took a lovely walk, admiring the beautiful homes and scenery that this idyllic southern California environment had to offer. We stopped at a picnic table, sat down to share a few words, and then I stood up, walked behind where she was sitting, and asked her to turn around so that she would face me. As she did, she saw that I was down on one knee. I reached for that precious cargo deep in the pocket at my side. I pulled out the box, opened it, and asked her to marry me.
The Response
She replied, “This is happening. This is happening. I can't believe this is happening.” After what seemed like an eternity, she said, “Yes!” She then proceeded to stick the ring on her finger, wiped the tears from her eyes, and gave me a big hug in celebration. Mission not so impossible after all.
But, as she began to admire the ring on her finger, she seemed distracted. She saw the empty box in my hand and wanted to have it. I, of course, gave it to her, and then she proceeded to fawn all over the box.
It was, I have to admit, a beautiful box. It was white leather wrapped in a perfect hexagonal shape. As you opened it, you could detect the all too familiar fragrance of that new box smell.
As she recounted the story to her friends and family, she seemed thankful for the ring, but she couldn't help describing the beauty of the box.
For those of you reading this blog now and paying attention to the admittedly sharp left turn that the story is taking, I hope that you are wondering about its truthfulness. I hope that you are incredulous about my assertions of my wife's love for and joy she was getting from the box.
Making Mud Pies
Of course she didn’t care about the box. She didn’t think twice about tossing it aside as she admired her ring. She was enthralled with its sparkly, spectacular brilliance. She cared only about the ring, because the ring was the thing that had value. The ring was beautiful. The ring was valuable.
The box was lost many years ago, but she still has the ring nearly 30 years later.
It would be utterly foolish for her to have behaved any differently. Everyone around her would be wondering about her mental health if she treasured the box more than the ring. It would have caused some serious questions in my own heart if she had behaved this way.
This story makes me wonder how God feels about us.
There are so many examples of us valuing boxes over rings. We choose the lesser created things over our creator over and over again.
CS Lewis describes this problem in the Weight of Glory like this,
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
This is an epidemic problem for humanity. It is the root of the ultimate sin of idolatry. We value created things more than the creator. We content ourselves with things that will never truly satisfy us when we should be pursuing the ultimate end of God’s glory.
It used to bother me that my pastor would talk about God’s passion for His own glory. He remarked regularly how this was God’s priority. “God is concerned with His own renown and fame,” he would say. This always struck me strangely, even though it is quintessentially Biblical.
His Name
The Scriptures are replete with examples of God being motivated by the hallowing of His Name.
In Ezekiel 20, God explains that he rescued the Israelites from slavery for the sake of His own name. He says in verse 9, “But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt.”
In Malachi 1 He says, “For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.”
In Habakkuk 2:14, God speaks to the prophet and says, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
He says again in Ezekiel 36:22 that He is going to put His Spirit in the hearts of His people for the sake of His name among the nations.
Jesus, Himself, even described his own ministry in terms of accomplishing what God sent Him to do. He said in John 17:4, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.”
Jesus also said in John chapter 4 that God was looking for worshippers who would worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Scripture is filled with proclamations of God’s commitment and priority to His own Glory.
It’s hard not to be convinced about this, but it still didn’t completely sit with me right.
My Name
I would think to myself, “If I met any human being that had his own glory as the primary motivation for how and why he acted the way he did, that person would be the last person I would want to be around.” He would be obnoxious and repugnant. I have experienced people like this in my life, and I do a lot to avoid them.
What’s the difference with God? Why is it ok for Him to be concerned with His own fame, and not the obnoxious football player that used to annoy me in high school?”
There are a couple of answers to this question. The first, and most theologically accurate answer is that God isn’t the same as us. His transcendence makes it ok for Him to be concerned with His glory and not the local cheerleader.
The second theological answer is that God cannot love anything more than Himself or He would be committing idolatry. So, he has to be primarily concerned with the hallowing of His Name or He would be guilty of loving something more than Him. He simply can’t do that.
But there’s at least one more reason why this is ok.
What is the Greatest Good?
I think the ring and box story is helpful to understand this point. In the same way that it would have been dishonoring to Kim for me to have given her anything less than the best thing that I could possibly afford, God in His love for us wants to give us the very best.
He loves us so much and values us so highly that He wants to present us with the most important, the most beautiful, the most magnificent, the most powerful and most incredible thing in the universe. He wants to give us the ring.
It just so happens that the best thing in the universe is Himself.
Cosmic Appraisal
It is to our benefit and to his glory that He is motivated by the magnification of His own name. When we value Him and love Him supremely, this puts us in a right relationship with Him. He is honored. He is valued. He is worshipped. He gets glory.
But it’s to our benefit too. We get the joy of being in relationship with Him through faith in Jesus. We get the privilege of beholding ultimate beauty. We get the joy of being completely at peace. We get the benefit of total satisfaction.
He is glorified and we are satisfied.
Our job is to value the ring accurately. We need to value it according to its worth. Since it is preeminently valuable, we should value it supremely.
Unfortunately, mankind is foolish. We spend our lives valuing the box over the ring. We worship created things rather than the Creator. We try to fill our lives looking for love, joy, and peace all the while missing the fact that the Satisfier of every longing in our heart is found in a relationship with God through Christ.
There is something else that’s important to understand about the way the Scriptures talk about God’s commitment to His glory. He doesn’t just want some of us to know, enjoy, and drink in the goodness and greatness of His presence. He wants the nations to know Him too.
God’s missionary nature
Look, again, at those Scriptures above. God reveals His commitment to His glory so that the nations will know Him.
He created the heavens and the earth to display His glory.
He chose Abram to know Him and bless him so that the nations would be blessed.
He rescued the Israelites from Egypt so that the nations would know He is God.
He empowered David so that the nations would know His power.
He sent the Israelites into exile so that the kings of Babylon, Persia, and Assyria would know that He is God.
He gave His Son to glorify His name and bring salvation to the whole world.
He directed the apostles to spread the good news of Jesus’ kingship to Jerusalem, Judea, and the uttermost parts of the world.
We see the scene in Revelation 7 -- the climactic image of the end when people from every nation, tribe, and tongue will gather around the throne and worship the Living God. We will cry,
“Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”
The Lord is a God of worship and wants the nations to enjoy His presence.
Because of this connection in scripture between God’s passion for His Glory and a desire for the nations to know Him, Global Outreach prioritizes worship as an organizational value.
What does this mean for the missionary?
A missionary’s job is to invite people into a relationship with their Creator. We carry the message of good news to recruit worshippers of God almighty from among all peoples.
John Piper famously said, “Missions exists because worship doesn’t.” The reason that we have missionaries is because there are still people groups around the world to whom the gospel of the Kingdom hasn’t been proclaimed. Worship is the ultimate goal of the church, and missionaries are sent by the church to increase worship.
Sending organizations like ours at Global Outreach International are designed to help the church accomplish her mission to invite worshippers from every nation, tribe, and tongue into a relationship with God.
We want to show and share the love of God so that every nation will know Him in this generation. We rightly do this through a variety of means.
We have ministries that focus on traditional missionary activities like, evangelism, discipleship, church planting, pastoral training and theological education. We also have ministries that focus on agriculture, community development, medical and dental care, business, education, and orphan and vulnerable care.
All these ministries are designed to show God’s love to the nations. The most important part of their goal is to invite new worshippers into a relationship with Him. We want to share God’s love too!
Each work must align themselves with God’s ultimate purpose. It’s not enough for us to simply care for the weak and vulnerable. Nor is it enough to simply feed the poor. Doing good things without the end of seeing God’s name hallowed among the nations is a disaster. The goal is that each bowl of food served, each child rescued from harm, each surgery performed, each student who graduates with a good education will lead people to Jesus. He is the person in whom all wrongs are made right and all longings are satisfied. We want people to know and love Him!
Global Outreach International is a sending agency. We exist to support the church’s mission to show and share God’s love around the world. We invite worshippers to delight in the beauty and majesty of their Creator. We hope each one is overcome with awe and wonder at who He is.
We want to encourage people among every nation, tribe, and tongue to value the ring over the box.
Reference
Lewis, C.S. (2001). The Weight of Glory. HarperOne. C.S.Lewis Signature Classics
Piper, John. (1993). Let the Nations Be Glad. Baker Publishing
