One of the most elegant descriptions of how God wants his people to be is the little aside found in John telling us of the boy who gave his bread and fish to the disciples to do with as they wished. Matthew, Mark and Luke don't even mention him; he was so forgotten to them yet John's Gospel proves his hidden act of faith was not lost on the Holy Spirit. Where we stumble badly is the thought that the flash and bangles of Christianity is what God really likes. We turn the page altogether and hardly give it a glance where Christ said to make no show of your giving or praying. If this is so for the person, why would it not be also for the church? We are to hide ourselves in Christ and let God lift us up at the proper time. Nothing insults the Spirit more than the propagandist view of Christian living. We are most bound up in our Lord and His life when in Christ we quietly wash the dishes and unobtrusively ignore the rough edge of a grumpy neighbor. God has not called us to make something of ourselves; He has taken us under His wing so that everywhere we go, Jesus is noticed. We have a task before us, to become so acquainted with Christ working all about us that we hardly notice what we are doing.
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3 NIV
