Recognition
Throughout our home, we have various gifts and memorabilia collected during our years of pastoral ministry - a limited print by the famous Texas artist, Robert Summers, an ornate piece of pottery received from a house church in China, a colorful vest from a former tribe of head hunters in northern India (now a Christian tribe, thank God!), a stringed musical instrument from Cambodia, a princely turban from a conference in Karnataka, India, and several other items that serve as reminders of where God has led and how he has worked through our lives.
But of all the cherished items in our home, there is one that I hold especially dear. It’s a plague that was presented to me from a church in Taebaek, Korea. For many years, we led a team to Sin (pronounced “shin” and translated “new”) Taebaek Baptist Church to conduct an annual English camp. It was an opportunity to provide a witness for Christ in a strong Buddhist community. The top students from the camp were provided six-week homestays in Hawaii, where their English improved greatly.
Anyway, one year, as a “thank you” for our efforts, I was publicly presented with this plague. You can see it above. Dam Armistead. Not the most accurate spelling of my name, but I’ve been called worse. Add an “n” and you get the idea!
Together with our workers from the church, we enjoyed a good laugh over this plague of special recognition. Several suggested, I fix it and redo the wording. Not on your life!
I love this plague and cherish it greatly. Not because of the work involved in the ministry to the Korean kids and the opportunities for these young people to spend time in Hawaii (how many U.S. citizens get that chance?), but because it reminds me that any recognition received in our service of Jesus in this life falls far short of what really matters - the recognition we receive from the Lord himself when we stand before him in eternity.
I’ve been reading Soren Kierkegaard’s “Attack Upon Christendom” in recent days. A brilliant existentialist Christian philosopher, Kierkegaard boldly called out the accolades, praise, and prestige enjoyed by many pastors, priests, and church leaders in their ministries. Much of what he writes reminds me of Jesus’ rebuke of the religious leaders in his day who relished the greetings of “Rabbi” in the marketplace and the priority seating they received at banquets.
It’s easy to get caught up in the recognition given us by others in the church and I’ll be the first to admit, I have not been immune to it. But when all is said and done, the fact is I’m still just Dam(n) Armistead. All I have, all I’ve done, and all I will ever accomplish is by God’s grace.
I love the scene in the fourth chapter of Revelation of the twenty-four elders who fall on their faces, casting their crowns before the throne of God. Those crowns were given to them by God, but they know in their hearts they were not earned, only received by God’s great grace. And so, they remove them from their brows and cast them before the One who deserves the true and final recognition.
Serving Christ for the pure joy and satisfaction it brings to our souls is the only recognition and reward any of us needs. And as we do that, we can look forward to the day when we stand before our Lord and hear the words of the only one whose recognition really matters as he says, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master!”
In Christ,
Dan
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