Sometimes I struggle with my motivations. Deep down inside I want to be the hero of every story. I was recently struggling with a big decision. I wasn’t able to think straight about it. I was struggling to do what I knew I had to do. I thought the opposite would be better because then I could “save some people”. When I was seeking counsel on this several of my mentors pointed out that I was confusing myself with Jesus. He said, “Jason you can’t save anyone, only Jesus can do that.”
Ouch, that hurt. After I got off the phone with him I cried out to God. I felt him saying this “Jason I didn’t ask you to save anyone, I just asked you to be obedient.” He has already made my path clear but I doubted it in the name of trying to “do good”. I overestimated my self-value. I needed to be needed for validation.
As I reflect on this time I learned or clarified some things.
- God hasn’t called me to the heroic savior, He has called me to be the obedient servant. My job isn’t to try and save anyone, it’s to be obedient to God’s call.
- Jesus is the hero. In every Bible story, we often misidentify the hero. David wasn’t the hero after fighting Goliath. Daniel wasn’t the hero in the lion’s den. Moses wasn’t the hero after parting the Red Sea. They were all obedient servants. Jesus is ultimately the hero. They just obeyed.
- If I make myself the hero in my sermons, I’m preaching another gospel. If I make it sound like I have it all figured out and do not need the cross I am self-deceived and in danger of deceiving others. I must paint myself in the true light of a man in need of Jesus to be the hero.
- I will do good to reflect His goodness, not to prove I’m good. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to do good. Our motivations must always be to bring Honor to the King. Helping others isn’t about me, it’s about pointing them back to the true hero who hung on the cross for them.
- I can’t save anyone else, I can’t even save myself. That’s why Jesus had to come. Doing good saves no one. We can’t do enough to save anyone. We must just be obedient to His call.