The Quiet Life
How our quiet, daily faithfulness can be our loudest witness
I always said that Jesus needed a better marketing team. He needed to get on the socials, get a podcast going, and get sponsored by BetterHelp or something because his ministry was way smaller than it could have been. Of course I’m being facetious, but that’s what some people wanted to do with Jesus, right? There were times when the people were looking for Jesus, they wanted the signs and miracles, the big showy stuff, and Jesus would be off hiding behind a building praying or saying “Nah, a miraculous sign isn’t what you need, you need a change of heart.” What’s so spectacular about that??? I can’t post a changed heart on TikTok! And then we see him riding into town on a donkey instead of a horse with armor and a caravan of adoring servants like Prince Ali from Aladdin. And we’re just like, “Dude! There was your opportunity! You’re blowing it Jesus!”
But that wasn’t what Jesus was about, was it? Jesus wasn’t about the platform or the large-scale influence. He chose a much smaller way. Yes it’s true that sometimes the crowds came to him and he taught them. But his preferred and typical method was investing in 12 guys in particular. Living with them, teaching them, and then sending them out.
Jesus’ life was marked by individual healings, individual moments of teaching and listening, and individual moments of asking questions. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12:
9 Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 10 And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, 11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
Paul is telling us to make it our ambition to lead a quiet life. Our ambition, our life’s aim, should be to live a quiet life. But Ryan, that doesn’t sound like what I hear everyone else around me saying!
We’re constantly pulled by our society and told by our culture that we can and should do BIG things! We can “make it!” And the implication is that if we’re not doing “big things” we’re somehow missing out on all that we’re entitled to. And even in our churches many of us are told that we’re meant to do “big things for Christ”. And maybe so... but what is “big”? What does that even mean?
I thought I knew what “big” meant once in my life, but it means something very different to me now. As a once-aspiring actor “big” once meant stage, audience applause, my face and name on posters and streaming online. Now it means something along the lines of having a conversation at bedtime with my kids about big faith questions. (Because that’s always when they ask those kinds of questions.)
Our call as followers of Jesus is not national platforms or internet fame. Our call is daily faithfulness. I didn’t start a theater company like some of my friends. I didn’t act on Broadway. I never headlined a movie. I became a paralegal while I volunteered my time at my local church. But in my conversations with the attorneys that I supported over the years, I was able to share my faith. They grew to know about my commitment to God and his Church. They got to know how we cared for people and how our church cared for us in tough times. I was able to provide for my family during that time as well. I got to tithe to my church and they were able to do various ministry efforts with it.
God wasn’t calling me to “big” as I had defined it, or as others had defined it for me. He was calling me to faithfulness. It’s taken me a lot of years and a lot of continual surrender to see that in reality, it’s our quiet faithfulness that’s our loudest witness to the God who is with us in all the ins and outs, the ups and downs, the big and the small. Ultimately there’s no such thing as a “small” life. A quiet life of faithfulness doesn’t mean one devoid of impact. Our quiet faithfulness is our loudest witness.
Maybe you’re like me and you’re more inclined to dream of big things. That’s great! Having a drive and determination and grit, that’s good stuff. We can dream of big things, even having platforms. But in the end, we have to know that this isn’t what God needs from your life in order for you to have Kingdom impact. What God really desires is you. Not your platform, not your influence, just you. He doesn’t value people based on the impact they can have for him or what they can bring to the table in his Kingdom. He values people because he loves them.
Or maybe right now, this IS the life that you’re leading - you don’t have a platform. Your sphere of influence is your kids, your fellow students, your cubicle mates at work, maybe a neighbor or two. It’s small, it’s intimate. And to you I say: keep on. Keep on with your quiet faithfulness.
The life of quiet faithfulness is such a rich and deep place to experience God. When things are big and loud the still small voice of Jesus can get drowned out by the noise. Living a life of quiet faithfulness, investing in just a few people, can have way deeper and lasting impact than surface level influence over thousands. Look what happened with the twelve disciples of Jesus! Our quiet faithfulness is our loudest witness.
Can you be thankful for a quiet faith? Have ambitions toward greatness hindered your faith? In my adult years I have discovered so much fulfillment in the life that I have lived. A life without the fame, the large platforms. It’s been this life, the one that Jesus has for me, where I’ve found my greatest fulfillment. This life where I changed my kids’ diapers as babies, where I’ve spent hours and days of my life in commute to a job in a sea of cubicles, where I pick up my dog’s poop in our yard or carry it around in a bag while I walk her, this life where outside of you guys and my friends and family, no one knows my name. But that’s okay, because it’s in THIS life that I have found fulfillment.
In the here and now, which is the only place we are ever assured of, can we be content with the fulfillment that comes with a quiet faith? I need to be reminded of that from time to time.