Sarah Kidd, today’s guest blogger and writer of the meditation published in The Upper Room for February 7, reflects on being obscure:

I grew up around what I call “big personalities.” Both my grandfather and my father were pastors in the small denomination where I learned faith and church. When I wasn’t “Don’s daughter” I was “Hubert’s granddaughter.” Finding and learning to value my own voice while still treasuring the legacy of faith I gratefully inherit was a long journey I’m not yet finished with.

We live in a culture – both secular and church – that adores celebrity. Our faith can easily be shaped by big personalities. When it’s not the next trendy pastor with an edgy or visionary book, it’s the next someone who started an NGO to provide wells in Africa.  I know such stories and books are meant to inspire, but instead they often leave me struggling to cheerfully make my own daily contribution of faithfulness. I also know Jesus said that what we do in secret will be rewarded by our Father in heaven.  But don’t the best Christians have a million Twitter followers, a best-selling book, and a regular audience of thousands?

Perhaps as a personal rebellion against this focus on celebrity success, I secretly love the long lists of names and genealogies found in the Bible. I delight that the Bible chooses not only to share the extended stories of Ruth, David, and Paul but also mentions the names of people we never read of again – like Ludim, Admah and Hazarma-veth.

My most-recent favorite list is Nehemiah 3. Not just a boring list of Jerusalem wall rebuilders, it contains some fascinating personal details:

• There are the noble Tekoites, who worked to repair the wall, even when the upper class among them wouldn’t lower themselves to help (3:5).
• The work of Hananiah, whose day job was as a perfumer (3:8).
• Shallum, a prestigious ruler who (with his daughters) helped rebuild the wall. (3:12)

I love how the list includes people who repaired just the wall in front of their own house alongside others who repaired long stretches. Each section built is mentioned and honored as a meaningful contribution. The people not listed are those who didn’t build at all.

Reading this list restores my resolution to be faithful in small things in the middle of our celebrity-driven, next-big-thing culture. Because while others are building incredible, mile-long stretches of wall, Azariah who repaired the wall beside his own house (23) is in God’s story too. As long as I’m faithful to the part God’s given me to build, what I do in secret – in obscurity – gets God’s attention.

Maybe I won’t build as much as my grandfather or father did, but I will have helped build. If I’m faithful to do the part – no matter how small – that God’s given me to do, then I become a part of the story of our faith.

And that’s a big deal.

Sarah Kidd

You can read Sarah’s regular, personal blog at www.sarah-kidd.com.