The grandest cathedrals are built of individual stones.
One man carved one block, breaking sweat and tears over the behemoth, until it was pared to size and fit precisely into the design of the whole.
The grandly-dressed pontiffs and soul-winning preachers wouldn’t have had a place to lay their staffs without the labor of the little guy.
We still have the person who carves the individual stone in our churches of today. We find him outside, trimming the shrubs on Saturday morning. She teaches in the nursery, taking two Sundays in a row because someone doesn’t show up. He’s an usher; she greets visitors at the door.
We can’t have too much pride to do these jobs. We’re a deacon? Bah, we can vacuum the floor. The minister? The stone-carving jobs don’t exclude the highest staff.
But I’m special, we cry. These jobs are beneath me. We boast of our authority and prestige, things we feel we’ve earned. We have a right to disseminate those chores to lesser saints.
If we judge by the volume of his written words, Paul was the greatest of Christ’s apostles. If anyone had the right to step aside and let the little guys get on with carving the small stones, he was the man. Yet, Paul made it clear he was no different than anyone else.
2 Corinthians 11:21-23, 30 reveal Paul’s humility:
“But whatever anyone else dares to boast of—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death.
“If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”
Paul never hesitated to take on the tough jobs, the carving of the hardest stone. He was aware he was more qualified than almost anyone else in early Christendom. Yet, it was his weaknesses that filled with him humility and made him the great apostle we revere today.
Paul understood this truth: When boasting removes our hands from the small stones, our edifice will begin to topple; and before long, it will come tumbling down.
Being a Christian means our fingernails are often dirty, because we refuse to sit around and let others do our job for us.
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