“As unknown, and yet well known…” (II Corinthians 6:9)
I just received another royalty check from my publisher. Wow! Just think about typing or saying those words. Wouldn’t that make you really feel like someone special? People who have agents or publicists or publishers are the very elite of the elite of this world, and here I am spouting out the words that put me in that select group.
OK, Paul Harvey, let’s get the rest of the story. The check was for 73 cents. It represents ONE book they sold for me in the last year. My “publisher” is actually one of the many self-publishing companies that will print your book if you pay them enough money up front. My publisher has never met me and literally would not know me from Adam (and Adam is a lot older than I am). They put a little on-line “promo” on their web site, and if anyone just happens to surf the web and find my book among the hundreds of thousands out there, they send them a copy. It happened onceduring the entire calendar year of 2012. So if I was going to put together a promotional “bio” on myself, I could advertise that I was a best-selling author with well under a million books sold. I gave the publisher a lot more than 73 cents to publish my book several years ago. I am way behind in the “get rich quick scheme” of self-publishing. What is even funnier is they held out 28 cents for taxes. I need to make sure to claim that on my 2013 return. I wonder if they will spend the 45 cents to send me the forms to show they held out 28 cents. (And we wonder why the world is so inefficient.)
The “fame and fortune” of this world is a very fleeting thing. Today, with the advent of You Tube and other such media, many more people are getting their “fifteen minutes of fame”; some of them perhaps wishing they didn’t. We all want others to recognize us and appreciate who we are and what we do. If you keep that in balance, there is nothing wrong with that. One of the very basic needs of our lives is to have significance and importance. God has built within the human experience the need to be loved and to feel like your life counts for something. Everyone wants to be well known, but things are really a whole lot different that they appear to us here on this dirt ball. The most important “recognition” you could ever hope for is at the throne of God. The Bible says in Luke 15:7 that there is great joy in heaven when one sinner comes to know Jesus as Saviour. When that happens, a person gets way more than his fifteen minutes of fame, he gets an eternity of it.
Our life does indeed count. God put us here for a reason, and the “threescore and ten” or so that God gives you matters greatly. You are a unique creation of God with eternal significance, and there will never be another one just like you. That truth makes us feel all warm and fuzzy, and rightfully so. It is good to know that at least God considers us special, even when it seems that few others actually do. But there is more to it that just our own fame and importance. Because you are unique, it means that you have a unique role during this life. Someone coined it this way, “There’s only one life, ‘twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” God put you here to accomplish some things for his glory and kingdom. Only you can do it. No one else can do what God has planned for you. Others can and will help us, but in the final analysis, “Every one of us shall give account of himself unto God.”(Romans 14:12) You never know when that time is coming. One of my son’s friends was just killed in a tragic accident the other day at age 27. I am sure that in the time it took me to type this blog post, several children met life’s end and stood before the Lord. You are indeed famous and unique. Make it count. Put your foot down on this planet and make a shoeprint. Let the world know you were here in the only thing that matters – the eternal impact of souls for the kingdom of God.
