BEING GREAT

Not only do we long to be great, we also desire to be recognized as being great. No player on the winning NBA Championship team ever turns down his ring. He claims it and wears it so that everyone will know what he did. In fact, there are men who won the Championship twenty years ago who will still wear their rings. Even though so much time has passed, they wear it because they want others to know that they are great.
In fact, so strong is a man’s desire for greatness that he will often attempt to experience it through someone else. A common way you see this is when a man shows up in a jersey with another man’s name on it. Whether we feel comfortable enough to admit it in spiritual circles or not, men want to be great.
I’ll admit it, I don’t mind - I want to be great.
And if you were brutally honest, I would bet that you also want to be great.
But what may surprise you, and what I would like to suggest to you, is that far from what we often hear in connection with the biblical teaching on servanthood and humility is that God wants you to be great as well.
Not only does God want you to be great in His kingdom, He has destined you for it.
Greatness is maximizing your potential for the glory of God and the good of others. Paul urges fellow believers to “excel still more” in how they fleshed out obedience to God’s commands in their lives. To the Corinthians, he urged them to be “always abounding in the work of the Lord.” He encouraged them to seek greatness and in all they did, according to 1 Corinthians 10:31, is to be done to glorify God and make His name great.
Men, I want you to experience this truth badly.
Hear me when I say this - it is okay to want greatness. That is not something that you have to mumble when no one is listening, or check at the church house door. It may seem to fly in the face of what you have heard as a call to be meek, humble, and a servant of all, but authentic greatness never negates any of those. In fact, authentic greatness includes the true definition of all of them.