Living in Hope: Serving the Lord as an Unknown Leader

In this week’s article in our series on “living in hope,” I am approaching my topic not by giving you a list of insights as I typically do. Instead, I want to tell you a story . . . a story from the Word of God. I trust it will give you hope, even if in an unexpected way.

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She was a desperate woman (Mark 5:25-34). She’d been sick with a blood disease for twelve years, making her an unclean member of her society. Even though she had spent all her money seeking a cure, no doctor had had an answer. Every day that she survived, her hope disappeared by the time she lay down that night. Day after day, month after month, year after year, one decade into the second one . . .  the agony continued. Hope dissipated with each passing day.

We don’t even know her name—but, God did . . . and He did something about this woman’s desperate condition.

Somehow, you see, this woman heard something about Jesus (Mark 5:27). Somebody said to her something like, “I’ve heard Jesus is coming through your town. You’ve got to get to Him.” Perhaps he or she added something like, “I’ve heard He can give legs to the lame, sight to the blind, and hearing to the deaf. I’ve even heard that He can raise the dead. I repeat: you’ve got to get to Him.” Whatever this woman heard, it was enough to drive her to get to Jesus. 

We don’t know what the woman heard, and we don’t know the name of the witness who spoke to her, either. Whoever it was, though, was God’s instrument to change that woman’s life. He or she was a reminder to us that the gospel story is never about the witness in the first place.

The woman did indeed get to Jesus, despite her having to break social mores to touch the garment of the rabbi—and her life would never be the same. Jesus did in an instant what no other doctor could do in over a decade. He alone could provide physical healing and spiritual cleansing, and He did so. His name, in fact, has been magnified through that miracle to this day. Our neighbors and the nations who read this story in the Gospels today will once again hear of the power of Jesus in the recorded text.

The story speaks of two people whose names are not included in the record: a hurting woman and a Jesus-proclaimer. Both are critical to the story, but neither is the center of that story. No, the focus of the story is the one whose name is included—Jesus, the Son of God.

After all, He’s always been the center of the story. Actually, He is the story.

What does this gospel episode mean for us today? We have the global responsibility and privilege of getting the gospel to non-believers among 8 billion people in the world—most whose names we do not yet know, and whose names will likely never be recorded in history books. They need Jesus, however, and we get to play a role through supporting missionaries who carry the gospel to the world or through serving as missionaries ourselves. The nations may never know our names or our contributions, but that must be okay with us. We are still not the story.

Closer to home, some of us live out our callings by shepherding people whose names we do know, and who view us as their spiritual leader. Others of us are laypersons who serve God faithfully each week to strengthen our church and reach our communities. The danger all of us face is that we will fall into the trap of leadership pride, seeking recognition and delighting when others know our name and recognize our work.

The danger is that we will want our names in the story even when we say we don’t.

Instead, it must be okay for us to follow the Lord honorably, week after week after week, yet never have anyone recognize our efforts. We have to recognize just how magnificent the Lord is and love Him so much that all we want is for His name to be honored.

When we get to that place in our lives, we won’t worry about recognition.

We won’t need to have our names in the headlines.

We won’t get frustrated when others are on the platform and still others get the spotlight.

In a strange way, our hope will rest in the truth that God knows our hearts and sees what we do even if others never recognize it, and He will reward us some day . . . but—and this point of this article really matters—you and I will simply place back at Jesus’ feet any rewards we get for following Him (Rev 4:9-11). Our hope in serving Jesus today is that someday we will have crowns we can humbly give back to Him for His glory.

So, friend, stay faithful in His work today. He is your hope. The rewards belong to Him. Keep following Him even if it seems no one recognizes your faithfulness. The story is still about Him—and it always will be.