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There are several things burden our minds recently. One of them is my son’s college application. Even though we had gone through the process of my daughter’s application previously, it is still a painful process because it is for a boy 🙁 One of the key elements in the application process, as school counsel instructed, is to write personal achievements and an essay. The emphasis in the content, in general, is about one’s leadership and awards during the school years. In other words, you have to emphasize that you are “somebody” in your field. I realize that this is a culture prevailed under today’s environment.

This lets me think of an old Chinese saying, “寧為雞首，不為牛後”. A common interpretation is one should have the ambition to become a boss, no matter how small is your business. This mentality can easily be observed from our common greeting phrase “What is your profession 你在那裏高就 ?” Frankly speaking, there is nothing wrong with the pursuit of becoming a “somebody” in your field. It is, however, one’s inherent motivation should be examined – do you use it to brag or boast?

Dwight L Moody, an evangelist and publisher who founded the Moody Church and the Moody Bible Institute, once said, “Moses spent forty years in the king’s palace thinking that he was somebody; then he lived forty years in the wilderness finding out that without God he was a nobody; finally he spent forty more years discovering how a nobody with God can be a somebody. It is an insightful illustration of how a “nobody” can be “somebody” only when he is with God. This also reminds us that only God’s recognition is important!

Apostle John indicated to us that Christ was the Word and He is Son of God (John 1:1-3). In other words, He is “somebody” in God’s eye and through Him, all things were made. However, when “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us 道成了肉身住在我們中間 (John 1:14a)”, Christ became Jesus in flesh, i.e. from “somebody” becomes “nobody” from this world’s view, because Bible told us “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 他到自己的地方來，自己的人倒不接待他 (John 1:11)”.  This, nevertheless, didn’t prevent Jesus from completing God’s plan – the Salvation to mankind. His submission to God exemplifies us how a “nobody” from this world’s view could become “somebody” in God’s view. He also promised that to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12) – we can be God’s children (somebody) if we receive Him as our Lord.

Do you want to be “somebody”, my dear brothers and sisters? Then, let’s submit to God’s instruction and follow His will to live a life that is setting apart from this world.