Content With Obscurity

"When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too - the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ." Colossians 3:4 Obscurity - the condition of being unknown; ambiguity; an unknown or unimportant person or thing; darkness; dimness; indistinctness. Maybe it's all the messages internalized over the years that "You have a call, a destiny, a purpose to fulfill on this earth" "God's called you to shine for Christ in your generation." These catch phrases are as true as the first time I heard them but sometimes indistinctness covers the path and is something I wrestle with as of late. When obscurity hits, how do you handle it? In the gardening world, often times you will plant and not see the fruit for years to come. If you just base the life of the plant on what's happening in those in between years, you'll potentially get rid of some plants that could be producing amazing stuff, if you wait. Waiting. There's that word again too. It's like the "meanwhile" in the scripture above. In the meantime, while you wait, be content.....content with obscurity. Maybe I'm more of a social diva than I truly care to admit. I like people and I like to be useful. In the past, vocational jobs included socially and spiritually helpful positions in Christian ministry. That was my job "title" on college campuses, high schools, a church or two. But those titles have been shed and I'm glad. Sometimes being useful just means being you. Isn't that purpose enough? And as you are you, and you just keep doing what's right, leave the results to God. Be content with the unknown, ambiguous place in life. Like the one who is wise in that season, continue to sow your seeds, continue to water. Watch what God will do with that. Truth is, your life is different in Christ even if no one else around you recognizes that. I love what Elisabeth Elliot has to say about this. Elisabeth Elliot ‎"[Christ] is my model. This means a different set of ambitions, a different definition of happiness, a different standard of judgment altogether. Behavior will change, and very likely it will change enough to make me appear rather odd--but then my Master was thought very odd."