When someone asks you what you do, do you feel proud or embarrassed by your answer? Personally, I tend to go on about all I dream to do. I think we all have this sense that we’re not reaching our full potential. But if you think about it, do you even know your own full potential? Your dreams are big, but are they big enough? Maybe not, but it’s hard to dream bigger when they already feel so far away.
We’re all “better than this,” we think, and we’re just waiting to prove it. But do we really know ourselves as well as we think? I’m coming to realize that we probably don’t know our own inadequacies or our true capabilities as well as we think. God knows that who we will be even our greatest dreams diminish, but also who we are in our weaknesses. Through every triumph and trial he is revealing it to us, and being content requires trust.
If you haven’t gotten the promotion, consider looking beyond your boss. If you haven’t been asked to fill the position you feel perfect for, ask the one who knows you more. If your menial work is going unnoticed, consider the meaning of service. Isn’t it most blessed to give? And don’t forget this isn’t the only life you’ll live. You’re being prepared for heaven. Maybe the world is supposed to change you for the better as much as you’re supposed to change the world.
‘Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much’ (Luke 16:10). Are we loving a few people well? Then we can love many well. Are we completing our task, however menial? Then we can accomplish greater things. Is service our work ethic? ‘Serve wholeheartedly, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people’ (Eph. 6:7). When we can be trusted with very little, then we can be trusted with very much.
The King has come down from heaven and his Kingdom has been announced. ‘So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God’ (1 Cor. 10:31). Though you can barely see it, you are building the Kingdom. Though you forget, you are serving the King of kings. When no one else knows, he notices. He will promote you as he sees fit, on earth and in heaven. For now, he is doing what’s best, and then it will be better yet.
Heaven is here now, and not yet. We are, yet we are becoming. Can it be better than this? No and yes. For now, God is doing what’s best, and then it will be better yet.