Less Of More By Chris NyeSample

Chris Nye: Less of More Devotional Day 4

“From Fame to Obscurity: Hidden in Plain Sight”

Scripture reading: Matthew 13:1-52

Although as we saw in yesterday’s devotional, our society tends to make us isolated hyper-individualists, we still want people to see us and approve of us. We want to be famous. We lust after a byline, we seek credit for a job done, and we build our profiles to be “liked” by others. 

What is the Bible’s counter-narrative to such a selfish story?

To begin to see the Christian’s vision for life in an age of celebrity, we need to turn to Jesus’ metaphors for life with God or life in “the kingdom,” as he called it. Here are some of the things Jesus likens to the kingdom of God: leaven, treasure, seeds, and pearls. They have one thing in common: they’re all hidden. Perhaps, then, our pursuit of being known and acknowledged moves us further away from God’s activity.

For a Christian to grow in the twenty-first century, they must hide themselves in a life with God. Does this mean Christians should become monastic in their religious practice, selling everything to hide away in the foothills to pray and meditate, without any interaction with “the world”? Absolutely not—look again at the metaphors of Jesus.

The kingdom of God is often found hidden within an environment, not excavated out of an environment or seen in plain sight. The leaven is within the bread, the seed is planted in the soil, the treasure is buried in the ground, and so on. All of these things are in direct contact and even partnership with the elements surrounding them. The kingdom of God is discovered and seen first from inside the hidden, sullied places.

Spirituality is not sterile; it is filthy. Jesus seemed to be careful to help us understand that while we will live with God in plain sight, we will not always see what he is up to there. We will be, like leaven or a microbe, hidden with God in plain sight.

Today, take some time that you would normally spend reading celebrity “news” or scrolling through social media and instead use it to ponder the question “What does it mean for my life to be hidden with God?”