In any endeavor, there is His Story and then there are the Side Stories.  When we walk with the Lord and plan our days around His agenda, we jump into His Story.  The greatness and enormity of our God, however, ensures that His story always breeds Side Stories in the lives of those involved.

The goal is His glory.  His Story is all about His glory.  It’s about God being portrayed for all the greatness He is.  That’s what glory means, to accurately reflect the One glorified.  So His Story is all wrapped up in His being known, His being respected, His being exalted, His being revealed for all the wonder that is the I AM.  

He’s the big picture, He’s the main thing.  

The existence of Side Stories, though, creates this pull to give overdue attention to the thing that isn’t the main thing.  We stare too long at the peripheral and the primary falls out of focus.  

If you endeavor to bring God glory, if you attempt to accurately reflect the greatness of God’s Story, there will be countless Side Stories of how that endeavor affected the lives of those who encountered His glory there.  

Take these writings.  I do this because God has told me to.  He’s impressed it on me that one of the tools He has entrusted to me by which I might bring Him glory is through the written word.  So this is about His glory.  But then the Side Stories exist for me and for anyone who might read this.  My own Side Story might include how the study and the writing bring me nearer to Him, how He might enlighten my understanding of myself and others as a result of having thought through something for the purpose of writing on it.  It might include what I want to accomplish and the type of writer I want to become, where this writing moves me and whatever next step it may lead to.  

I pray there are Side Stories beyond this as well.  I pray that mine is not the only Side Story, that there are others who are moved, affected, convicted, blessed, strengthened, encouraged, edified by my having done my part in God’s Story.  

While the me and you of all this can be beautiful and beneficial, it can be purposeful and nurturing, as I pray it is, the main goal–again–is not in the Side Story.  The main goal, the primary focus remains, “Has God been glorified here?”  

If you attempt to do something for the Lord, by His power, and for His glory, the goal must be His glory, His Story.  The Side Stories, mine and others, must be just that, side items, not the main meal.  

For me today, this is huge.  It means that when I gauge the ‘success’ of my offering, the variables aren’t whether or not I ‘did good,’ or whether or not this person showed up or seemed impacted.  It can’t be based on how it looked or was perceived, whether the numbers were right or the dollars met the quota.  It can’t be measured by tangibles on a graph or even emotions in the room.  

There is only one measure of success with His Story:  Has God been glorified here?

No matter what the Side Stories do or do not entail, we rest in the greatness of His Story being accurately portrayed through our offerings.  And leave the rest in His care.

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.           Colossians 3:3