(Photo by Lourenço Pavão on Unsplash)
Travel to Caithness in Scotland and, on a remote stretch of shoreline, you will find poetry by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Here, carved into the rocks, are complete poems and further extracts from more than twenty of his works – written in the original Spanish. Why? You might ask that but then things get even more mysterious. It turns out they were written in secret, by an unknown person, on rocks that are only visible for a few minutes each day when the tide recedes. Somebody has taken an incredible amount of time and trouble to carve these words in an intricate script knowing they will be seen by virtually nobody.
It reminds me of a story told in one of my school assemblies when I was little. It was of a cathedral, in Italy I think, and was about the statues carved in the roof areas. Here there were statues that looked exquisite from ground level but with backs that were ugly and unfinished because the sculptor knew that nobody was going to see them from that angle. And then there was an angel way up at the very top that wasn’t even visible from ground level but had been crafted front and back to the highest of standards. The message of that assembly, which I’ve never forgotten, was that whatever we do, seen or unseen, should be done to the best of our abilities and without looking for praise or adulation.
My school assemblies at a state school in the 1960s/70s were not noted for scriptural input so let’s add some thoughts from Jesus into the mix. Jesus was all for doing things simply with the minimum of show to avoid any temptation to pride. In terms of charitable giving, he famously suggested that your left hand shouldn’t know what your right hand is doing. In other words, keep it to yourself. In terms of other religious acts like praying or fasting, he said that people should do things as secretly as possible. For those wanting others to look up to them, he warned that God’s kingdom has a completely different set of priorities. The first will be last and the last will be first.
Does that sit comfortably with you? Or do you like (or even design) the things you do to be seen by others in order to win their praise and affirmation? That latter way only leads to pride, jealousy and the wasting of time and effort. Instead, let the Holy Spirit guide you in the things you should do; do them to the best of your ability; and listen only for that voice that says, “Well done, good and faithful servant”.
Prayer: Jesus, help me to follow your example, listening to your words and looking to your actions, that I might do everything to the best of my ability, seeking not human praise but that of your Father who ‘sees what is done in secret’. Amen.