You arrive at the Grand Canyon for that much-anticipated family vacation. It’s something you’ve looked forward to for years. Your tour guide takes you to the spot where he usually begins his talks. Then something peculiar happens. Poised at this especially picturesque location, the guide starts a stretch of ramblings. He tells of the accomplishments of his firstborn, the high price of gas, and even the crush he had on his teacher back in the third grade. You can’t believe it.
Then there’s me. I remember engaging in a conversation with the UPS man one afternoon recently. He evidently wasn’t in a hurry because he struck up a conversation about my wife’s car and the durability of that particular model. We talked for a few minutes and then he drove away to his next stop. I thought later that I had missed a golden opportunity to weave in something about the Lord. After all, I’m here to make much of something greater than any material possession. Like the tour guide, I fell short.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God(1 Corinthians 10:31).
Surely the ‘all’ in that verse includes conversations. We should talk to the glory of God. It’s clear that the words that tumble off our lips should make much of God. That doesn’t mean that each conversation should be a Sunday sermon, but each is an opportunity to glorify God in some way.
Let’s think about what it means to glorify God. John Piper gave what I think is a helpful explanation in his sermon "Glorifying God … Period."
“Glorifying means feeling and thinking and acting in ways that reflect [God’s] greatness, that make much of God, that give evidence of the supreme greatness of all his attributes and the all-satisfying beauty of his manifold perfections.”
Reflect on that for a moment. … What I take away from his explanation of ‘glorifying’ is that I am to craft each conversation in such a way that it makes much of God.
My friend Shelton excelled at that. His conversations almost always gravitated toward the Lord. Often midstream in a conversation, Shelton would pause for a second, and I knew the conversation was turning Godward. He would ask me about my relationship with the Lord, or he might humbly share what the Lord had been teaching him. You could count on him to glorify God.
[W]hoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 4:11).
I’m thankful for examples like Shelton. You likely have someone like him in your life. And I’m thankful for second chances.
May our glorious God help us to remember that the next conversation we have today is an opportunity to make much of Him.
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! (Psalm 115:1)
