Attaining Real Glory
Rev. Reid
Little Johnny was the son of the local minister. One day his teacher asked the class what they wanted to be when they grew up. When it was his turn to answer, he replied, “I want to be a minister just like my Dad.” The teacher was impressed with his determination and so she asked him why he wanted to be a preacher. “Well,” he said thoughtfully, “since I have to go to church on Sunday anyway, I figure it would be more interesting to be the guy who stands up and yells than the one who has to sit down and listen.”
Johnny is not the only one that does not understand the source of real glory. We attain real glory by living in the moment, one moment at a time and putting God first. The problem is we have become imprisoned by who we think we are – our name, our identity, our denomination, the society, our race, country, our social status, class or position. We become smaller and smaller as we move from birth to death. By the time we die we have obtained much in this world but gained nothing that will last. Real glory is immortal. Superficial glory or world grandeur is soon forgotten.
There are two ways of attaining real Glory. The first way is by living each moment, one moment at a time. There is a difference in obtaining things in life and attaining the real glory of living. Our birth was an Attainment in real time. We did not ask to be here but we came. We were born innocent with a vastness of the sky. As we grew older our life became smaller and smaller. We began to associate with parts of life and we missed the whole which is God. Jesus’ message to us was we cannot put anything before the life that is eternal. Nothing! He said, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” This is a hard lesson because we have much invested in our relationship with our family and other things in this world. Living moment to moment requires surrendering to God every breath we take. Unless we are willing even to deny our worldly family and things of this world, we cannot be part of a spiritual family. Unless we are willing to deny the ordinary ties of the body, we cannot move into the world of the Spirit. We have to leave behind the world of matter, the world of the body, to move into the world of the Spirit. This takes living each moment seeking, loving and trusting God.
Second, we can attain real glory by putting God first and carrying the cross we have been given in life. Jesus says,“Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” We all have a cross to carry. A cross is anything or anyone that comes between us and God. A cross can be our job or profession, our family, wealth, power or prestige. To attain real glory we must put God first. This is hard to do because we have become so attached to the parts of life that we like. The world of the Spirit contains the whole where we never die. And until our ego, character, selfishness and self-centeredness die, we cannot follow Jesus Christ. We have to die so that the new can be born in us. It can be born only when we are gone. It is not a question of transforming our old self, or improving the body or our mind, howsoever better we become, we will remain the same, if we are not born again. To be born again, we must put God first in all things. It is then that we attain to real glory.
Here is the deal, we attain to real glory by surrendering our life to God. Remember, God comes from the same door from where death of the ego comes in. If we are afraid of dying we will remain afraid of God. God and death are two names of one phenomenon. If we are afraid, we interpret God as death. If we accept Christ as our risen Lord, we interpret death as new life in God.
