Credit where credit is due

Yesterday a young woman came over so I could help her with her first bed-sized quilt. She knew a little about what she was doing, but with some one-to-one instruction her work improved immensely. She worked from 10:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. with a stop for lunch and finished all the blocks for a twin bed quilt top. They still need to be assembled, borders put on, then ‘sandwiched’ into a quilt and ‘quilted’ to hold it all together.

I did help her, but when her father came to pick her up, I wanted to downplay my part and give her the credit for a job well done. He was beaming. She was pleased too, yet I could see in her face that “I can’t wait to get it finished” look. She is quite a remarkable 14 year-old.

This morning I read where Jesus was teaching His disciples about ‘death’ to the things of this life that they might better serve Him. In John 12:27, He says His soul was troubled, and He asks His Father to save Him from “this hour” which is a reference to the cross and the literal death He was about to experience. Then He says, “But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.”

There are many ways to exalt God. It honors Him when we give Him praise, when we trust Him, when we do as He says. As I thought about this, my little quilting friend, and my desire that she received credit for her work, He reminded me that this is one way of glorifying Him. Whenever His people do anything of note, we ought to give Him credit. We might have been the visible element, but He is ‘the hand in the glove’ and the One behind our actions.

While He was certainly part of our day, I could have done more to honor His part in our work on this project. As a believer in Jesus, she also needs to learn where the credit for our accomplishments must be placed, and how to honor and glorify God in all of our lives.

The struggle to do this is part of that “hating this life” that Jesus talks about. Part of me wants everyone to know “I did it” but deeper, where Jesus lives, I know that my pride wants to take the credit and glorify me. Besides, if what God did through me is a blessing to others, they will give me far more credit than they should, far more than my already inflated ego needs.

Glory to God makes sense. He gives all the motivation, wisdom, energy, and everything else we need to do whatever He asks of us. What do I do in any of it? Obey Him? I wouldn’t do that either if it were not for the work of the Holy Spirit.

Glorifying me is far too easy. Glorifying my Father requires that same commitment to dying as Jesus had, and even though my ‘death to self’ is a mere and faint shadow of His sacrifice, it requires making a choice. If His soul was troubled at that choice, I should not be surprised that mine is also.

However, such a sacrifice requires something more than just a decision. Jesus calls me to “abide in Him” and grow into a deeper understanding of the role that God plays in my life. If I really believe that “apart from Him, I can do nothing” then, rather than struggling with the choice, my life will become more of ‘an easy response to grace’ that more readily glorifies His name.