Hall of Fame

You can go the distance,
You can run the mile,
You can walk straight through hell with a smile.

You can be the hero,
You can get the gold,
Breaking all the records they thought never could be broke.

Do it for your people,
Do it for your pride,
How you ever gonna know if you never even try?

Do it for your country,
Do it for your name,
Cause there's gonna be a day, when you're...

Standing in the hall of fame,
And the world's gonna know your name.

Alright, I'll be honest; "Hall of Fame", by the Script is one of my favorites. :)  It does have some pretty incredible lyrics, if you think about it. Walking through difficulty rejoicing, being a hero, breaking impossible barriers..... sounds a lot like heroic Christianity, doesn't it?  And later on, the lyrics call us to: "Be believers, be leaders... be champions, be truth-seekers."  So what's missing?

This weekend, the famous football star, Michael Strahan, was inducted to the NFL Hall of Fame. Now, a life-sized bust of his head will be forever commemorated as a cultural icon of fame and prosperity. The world knows his name.

Believe it or not, Christianity has its own Hall of Fame. Actually, it has quite a few. Most people refer to Hebrews 11 as the "Hall of Faith" chapter, and, reading through it, it's easy to see why!  1 Chronicles 11 and 2 Samuel 23 contain lists of David's mightiest warriors. The book of Acts is filled with the heroic testimonies of the greats. The Halls of Fame display Christian heroism at its finest.

Yet there is one hero whose life and brave martyrdom does not appear in a Hall of Fame. His brother, Peter, appears continuously throughout Christian history as a hero made ready for the task at hand. He was given a new name by Christ, and Jesus called him uniquely into Gethsemene to pray with him, and up on the mount of transfiguration. For Catholics, Peter is the first Pope himself. This is no ordinary apostle!

But yesterday, I heard a completely new perspective on the story Peter. In a conversation with the sweet Bailey Brown, she pointed out to me that Andrew was actually the one that led Peter to Jesus in the first place.

And yet it was Peter, not Andrew, that was called the rock, taken into private confidences with Jesus, and deemed the ecclesial authority. It was Peter, not Andrew, whose name immediately comes to mind when many of us hear stores of Biblical heroism, martyrdom, healing, and the book of Acts.

But Andrew was willing to be the lesser vessel. He was willing to play the background. He was willing to serve in the small things, preparing him for his greatest moment, that shakes me to the core every time I hear it.

Toward the end of his life, Andrew was taken by the governor of a Judean region and told that if he would not stop preaching the cross, he would be crucified on one as well. Andrew's response, to this man who had the power on earth to do exactly as he threatened, was firm: "I would not have preached the glory of the cross of Christ if I was not willing to die upon it."  Infuriated, the governor took Andrew and tied him to a cross in the shape of an X. He hung there for three entire days, every bone of his body out of joint and torturously painful....... and all the while, he preached the glory of the cross to everyone who passed him, until God took him home. And you can bet your bottom dollar that, just like Stephen, Andrew was greeted with a standing ovation from his Lord and Savior when he walked through Heaven's gates.

This man was a hero. And yet he did everything in full humility. He did it while playing the background the entire time.

The need for modern-day "Andrews" is massive. Many Christians who have been stirred with the spirit of victory would willingly stand in Peter's position; he was martyred, too, but he was SOMEONE. He had authority, and fame. He was one of the closest disciples to Christ himself..... arguably the closest. But few of us are willing to take up a sword in the prayer closet, unacknowledged, where no one ever knows about it, as we pour ourselves out to win a victory before the only audience that matters. Bailey shared this story with me yesterday, and I thought it was incredible:

"You may or may not know of a man by the name of Richard Baxter. He was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymn-writer and theologian. He also was an author and wrote many books. One of his more famous ones is called "A call to the unconverted". Now, when that book was published, a man by the name of Philip Doddridge read that book and became saved. Doddridge then wrote a book called the "Rise and progress of religion in the soul". When William Wilberforce read that book, HE became saved. William then wrote the book,"A Practical View of Christianity", which, I believe was the book that led a man by the name of 

Legh Richmond to get saved and write a book called "The Dairyman's Daughter"--a 52-page booklet that thousands, and maybe millions of people have read today. It's a true story about a woman who had a great spiritual understanding of the things of God. Wow! One man, huh? But then we ask the question, how did Richard Baxter get saved? Well, it was 1 woman who left a tract on his door. No one knows her name. No one knew who she was. She disappeared. But, really, who was she? 

She was an Andrew. Someone who didn't know what kind of an influence she would have. But she was willing to leave a tract on a man's door, and retreat back into the shadows; no one knowing her identity."

One tract. One woman whose name we don't even know. One Andrew...... sparked ALL of that.

The Script's "Hall of Fame" contains some powerful elements, but look at the motivation..... "Do it for your people, do it for your pride... do it for your country, do it for your name."  In other words?  Do it for YOU. So you will have a stance in the hall of fame. So the world will know your name.

But are you willing to be the one whose name the world will never know?  If they know HIS name, isn't that all that matters?

Are you willing to be an Andrew?  Or do you require the Hall of Fame?

It's evident You want to show,

So let me back down.

You take the leading role,

And I'll play the background.

-"Background", by Lecrae