Your greatest effectiveness may be awaiting the moment when you are least concerned with being great or effective.

For some people, who have sacrificed fame, fortune, and the comforts of living in service, there is one last hope in this world – to be remembered.

In one reading from Chamber's, "My Utmost for His Highest," Saint Oswald pulls the props out from under that last vestige of worldly desire:

"Are you ready to be not so much as a drop in a bucket – to be so hopelessly insignificant that you are never thought of again in connection with the life you served?"

We are challenged to think of service only in relation to the One we are serving and those who, in His name, we serve.

""Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all." Philippians 2:17

Am I willing to be a door mat?

Am I willing to be forgotten?

Am I willing to be a drop in the bucket?

Is that not the meaning of real service? To forget oneself in the service of another? To lose oneself in a greater calling? To desire the pleasure of none but the objects of service?

Chambers raises the bar yet again and challenges us with this observation:

"Some saints cannot do menial work and remain saints because it is beneath their dignity. "

In Matthew 18:1, the disciples came to Jesus with a question that revealed that they still did not "get it."

"Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"

Here comes the  GONG one might think, but Jesus neither rebukes nor ridicules them. Instead, He gives them an object lesson to gently teach them. He produces a small child and sets the child before them.

"Get small before God and man . Get really humble like this one. Become as insignificant as you can imagine. Lose any interest in your own importance. And welcome others who do the same. You will find that you, in doing so, are welcoming me."  (my paraphrase)

This is hard for us, but it is also liberating.

Many know this story, ironically by an unknown author, but I offer it again for perspective:

An old missionary couple had been working in Africa for years and were returning to New York to retire. They had no pension; their health was broken; they felt defeated, discouraged, and afraid.

As the trip began, they discovered they were on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of his big-game hunting expeditions.

No one paid any attention to them. They watched the fanfare that accompanied the President's entourage, with passengers trying to catch a glimpse of the great man. As the ship moved across the ocean, the old missionary said to his wife, "Something is wrong."

"Why should we have given our lives in faithful service for God in Africa all these many years and have no one care a thing about us? Here this man comes back from a hunting trip and everybody makes much over him, but nobody gives two hoots about us."

"Dear, you shouldn't feel that way," his wife said.

He replied "I can't help it; it just doesn't seem right."

When the ship docked in New York, a band was waiting to greet the President. The mayor and other dignitaries were there. The papers were full of the President's arrival. No one noticed the missionary couple. They slipped off the ship, disappeared in the crowd, and found a cheap flat on the East Side, hoping the next day to see what they could do to make a living in the city.

That night the man's spirit broke. He said to his wife, "I can't take this; God is not treating us fairly." His wife replied, "Why don't you go in the bedroom and tell that to the Lord?"

A short time later he came out from the bedroom, but now his face was completely different. His wife asked, "Dear, what happened?"

The Lord settled it with me. I told Him how bitter I was that the President should receive this tremendous homecoming, when no one met us as we returned home. And when I finished, it seemed as though the Lord put His hand on my shoulder and simply said;

"You're not home yet."

We love to take and receive credit for our efforts, good intentions, and sacrifice. Sometimes, our lives are on display for others to take courage from us. When that happens, we need extra grace not to grab the glory. It may be that no one will notice what we have done and who we are. We need grace then, to be OK with that.

This is not our home. We are still on the journey and we are here to serve.