WHO WANTS GLORY? DO YOU REALLY?

Some people strive for great recognition and glory – for them that is all there is. If they can’t be in the limelight they will cry foul or sometimes they just cry. Their raison d'être is to be seen of men; they want to be center stage.

Such was a man who lived in the early part of the 20th-century. He was probably a good man for the most part (I use the word “good” in the everyday sense, what most people would consider good from an external vantage point).

But his weakness, like most men, was vanity. He desired to be well thought of – so much so that he lied in an Assembly of God publication (Pentecostal Evangel), taking credit for the founding of a church that he did not start. Was he at the church near its being? Yes. But being near the beginning is not quite the same thing as being there from its inception.

You ask, what of the man who actually founded the church? Did he not speak up and call this man on his falsehood? Did the man who began this church set the record straight for all to see? No. The man who literally built the church with his bear hands, who went out and knocked on doors, who attended to the sick, who preached the church's first sermons, until an actual pastor was provided, remained dumb while another man took credit for his work.

Right now, you are asking why. Why wouldn’t this man want the world (or at least the small church world) to know that it was he who did this good deed?

To gain some insight on the man’s character who actually founded the church, we need to look at what he told one of his sons who saw the Assembly of God publication where another man took credit for his father’s work.

When his son saw another man’s name under the picture of the church that his father had founded, he was angry. This son had just returned from military duty and was full of vim and vigor. This son was a man of action who had an incessant need to set the record straight. This son wanted the world to know that his father had founded this church and did not want the imposter to get away with his charade.

When the son saw the article he wanted to go right up to the man, who took credit for his father’s work, and punch him out – he wanted to go the Assembly of God district office and demand a retraction and a correction of the story. But before he did either of those things, he went, with magazine article in hand, to see his father.

The son marched up to his father, still breathing out angry epithets toward the man who desired the recognition and glory, respectfully pushed the article toward his father’s gaze and asked, “Have you seen this?”

His father calmly but deliberately responded, “Yes, I have.”

“Well, what are you going to do about it?” his son asked in a tone that demanded an answer.

With humility and gentleness his father answered the question, “Nothing.”

Nothing.

But before his son could get the next fiery word out of his mouth, his father quickly added, “I’m not going to do anything about it.”

Those words shocked his son. But what followed only served to teach him a lesson about the futility of chasing glory.

With an authority that only comes from true spiritual authority, his father said to his son, “I’m not going to anything about it and neither are you.”

His son asked, “Why not?

"This isn't right. We need to set the record straight. And he (the man falsely taking the credit) needs to admit he lied," his son excitedly exclaimed.

“Son, this article may be the only glory this man ever knows, and I don’t think that we should steal it from him,” his father answered.

The truth of those words hit his son like a ton of bricks.

His son, his heels now cooled somewhat, continued to listen to father say, “Son, I didn’t build that church to receive glory from man. I know where my reward is. Besides, all human glory is fleeting and empty.”

His son learned a lesson that day. May we all learn the same lesson. However, people will not. They will continue to pursue what will always slip through their fingers.