It's been my privilege to know a few rare individuals whose lives just glow, whose devotion to God bless others far and wide. I used to wonder, what is it that this person has that attracts so? It isn't what they say or do so much, as something almost intangible. Why do they inspire such love in others they interact with? Then it became clear: why on the throne of their lives, so to speak, is not petty self but Christ. It is their humility, which draws others in.
There's no mistaking when we come across someone who has love for Christ in their hearts. It is as Jesus said, a city set on a hill that cannot be hid. It's as though, whether and probably through hard experience in life, they have settled this question once and for all: whose glory am I living for? my own or for His?
And obviously early on, they've come to grips with what Paul points out in these words: "Do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ". (Galatians 1:10)
To cater to others in order to fulfill personal ambitions, to gain preferment over others, is not why they are doing what they do. And worse still, they wouldn't dream of pushing Christ out of the limelight so that they may bask in it!
We each have two mental roads that confront us in this life -- the broad one leading to self, worldly honour, and destruction sure, and the narrow one that paradoxically leads to self-renunciation, expanding horizons -- real happiness. Thank God there have been given to us such sublime examples of those who chose the Master's path, whose lives are shedding light upon the rest of us.
