They say that a lot more gets done if you don’t care who gets the credit. In the New Testament we are told to give without expecting anything in return. That means not even expecting to be thanked. I don’t think that idea goes over very well. Many organizations, including the church, spend a lot of effort recognizing and thanking workers and volunteers. There are gifts and notes and plaques and lunches and parties and all kinds of ways that people are thanked for their efforts especially if they are volunteers. Then there are the big thank you’s like naming a building after a big donor and things like that. The fact is that most people expect to be recognized for their contributions and want to be thanked.
In Psalm 22 the writer tells of extolling God to the dead, to posterity, to future generations, to the those yet unborn, to all the families and nations of the earth. The people have been delivered, kept safe, been accompanied through affliction, and the poor have been fed. How has this happened? Who is responsible? The writer celebrates that, “God has done it.” God has done all these things and more. The writer takes no credit for anything. The writer gives no credit to any other source. Everything good and needed is attributed to God. God is the source. God sustains life. God makes it possible to live each day. God gets people through difficulties and problems. God. So the Psalm celebrates, “God has done it.”
I am wondering how things would be different if we took that attitude: If we focused on giving credit to God? What would it be like if we were continually thanking God? What if we were celebrating that each day is a gift from God? What if we praised God for everything that gets accomplished? After all, God is the source. What if we put the focus on God? The sub text here is: What if we put the focus, the gratitude, the appreciation, and the recognition on God and not on us, not on others, not on this one or that one or this organization or that committee, but on God? I think this would eliminate a lot of selfishness and self centeredness. I think it would free us from our insatiable egos that want to be fed acknowledgment and gratitude and recognition and praise. I think it would contribute to our life as other-centered servants and relieve us of all kinds of petty hurt and strife and disappointment. “God has done it.” Try having that for a motto, an affirmation, a response, especially when you are thanked for something. “God has done it.” By taking this approach, I think a lot more would get done and the world would be better for it.
Prayer
We work and strive and exert ourselves and sometimes forget that everything we do is because of what we have been given. We have been given life, and love, and opportunity, and resources. We are only able to live our days because of what has been and is being done for us. May we always remember, “God has done it!” Not only will this bring us greater joy, but it will make the world a better place for everyone. Amen.
Note: Speaking of “God has done it,” Mary Stokes of our congregation celebrates three years of being cancer-free today. Thank God!
Lakewood United Church of Christ 