Making God famous

Lately I've noticed a growing theological trend.  I saw it again the other day in the form of atweet.  It said something like this: “Whatcan you be doing right now in your life to make God famous?”  Implied is that we need to spend our lives ina way that is worthy of God, and in so doing, we will help others to see himfor how amazing he is.  I have seen this ideawritten in church mission statements, and have heard it expressed as the personalgoal of one’s life.  Some people see “makingGod famous” as the entire reason they exist on this planet.

I applaud the motivation behind these kinds ofstatements.  They are obviously stated bywell-meaning Christians who desire to make an impact for God in this life.  But I do have one little, tiny, theological disagreement:

God doesn’t need my help.  

God is already pretty famous (understatement alert!).  I sometimes have the privilege of helpingwith this truth.  But he is not famousbecause I desire for him to be so.  He isnot famous because I have outworked others in my zeal for the kingdom,  He is famous because, well, he just is.

Maybe it’s because we are in an election year, but it seemsthat some Christians are embracing a political metaphor for the kingdom ofGod.  God is the politician, and we arehis handlers.  Like running a goodcampaign, our main job is to put out lots of ads making God look good andmaking his enemies look bad.  We are toparticipate in a kind of cosmic spin control so that our candidate that getsthe most votes at the end of the day.  Inso doing God is made famous, and we have done our part.

But I don’t think that’s a helpful metaphor.  I think that a more biblical picture isadoption.  God says that we have beenadopted into his family.  He is ourloving father.  We receive all the rightand benefits and blessings of the fact that he is already incredibly rich, powerful, and famous.  Even though we don’t deserve it,we receive the status of becoming his children, and the privilege ofparticipating in his eternal work.

In Genesis 12:2 God is blessing Abram (and through him, thewhole nation of Israel).  He declares, “Iwill make you into a great nation.  Iwill bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.”  Wait, what? Hold on there, God.  I thought wewere supposed to be making YOU famous? God, you have it backwards!  I’msupposed to be blessing you.  But ofcourse, this kind of thinking puts us in the seat of power, instead of God.  It unwittingly declares humans to be the oneswith control over the relationship, instead of the almighty Creator.

The good news is that breaking this political metaphor takesall the pressure off.  We no longer haveto worry whether or not we’re making our candidate look good.  Instead we can simply focus on being afaithful witness in this world, a small light to shine his glory wherever wego.

God is already famous. He is already on the throne.  Hedoesn’t need my help, or yours.  And yethe is pleased to allow us to be adopted into his family and to participate inhis work.