Somebody asked you what you do, and you said it again.
Oh, it is just a little thing I do. A bit of a sideline. Nothing serious. I mess about with it.
And meanwhile there are people who rely on you, who have paid you money this month, who would be genuinely inconvenienced if you stopped, and one of them has recommended you to somebody else, and you have been doing this for four years.
I am not going to tell you to believe in yourself. That is the standard advice and it is useless, because you do not have a belief problem. You have an accuracy problem, and those are different, and the second one is much easier to fix.
The first job anybody was given
There is a moment near the beginning of Genesis where God does something that always strikes me as strange, and it is about naming.
And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. (Genesis 2:19, King James Version)
To see what he would call them.
The very first assignment given to a human being is not building or ruling or making. It is naming. Looking at a thing and saying accurately what it is.
And the naming is treated as real. Whatsoever Adam called it, that was the name thereof. God does not correct him or overrule him. The naming stands.
Genesis 2:19 places accurate naming at the very start of human work, and the Holy Spirit is the one who lets that reach somebody who has spent four years describing their own work inaccurately.
You were made to name things accurately, and it has never once been arrogance to do so. Genesis 2:19 gives naming as the first human assignment and lets the names stand, and the Holy Spirit is the one who makes accuracy feel like obedience rather than like boasting.
Shrinking is not modesty
Let me say what the little thing I do is actually doing, because it is not humility.
It is a pre-emptive defense. If you name it small, then nobody can be disappointed by it, and you cannot be exposed as somebody who took themselves seriously and turned out not to be much. Naming it small is a way of getting there first.
I understand it completely, and Genesis 2:19 does not scold anybody for it, and neither does the Holy Spirit. It also has three costs and you have been paying all of them.
The first is that people believe you. They do not hear modesty, they hear information, and they file your work where you filed it. The second is that you cannot ask properly for something you have described as nothing. And the third, which is the one that matters, is that you have to hear yourself say it, and after four years of saying it, part of you believes it too.
Genesis 2:19 has naming treated as consequential rather than decorative, and the Holy Spirit is the one who shows a person that what they call a thing does something to it.
You are not being modest, and shrinking it has never once been the same as humility. The written word has a name stand exactly as it was given, and the Spirit of God is the one who shows somebody what their own description has been doing.
What accurate sounds like
So here is the sentence, and notice that it is not grand.
I make and sell candles. I do the books for four small companies. I cut hair. I fix bikes.
That is it, and Genesis 2:19 asks for exactly that much and the Holy Spirit does not require any more. No adjectives, no qualifiers, no joke. Not it is a proper business now, which is defensive in the other direction, and not just a bit of, which is where you have been living.
Accuracy is unexciting. That is what makes it survivable. You are not claiming to be a large firm and you are not apologizing for not being one, you are simply saying what you do.
And you will want to add something. Everybody does. Sit on it, and Genesis 2:19 asks for a name rather than a case, and the Holy Spirit is not asking you to justify anything.
You are able to say a plain sentence, and it has never once needed an adjective on either side. Genesis 2:19 has creatures named rather than argued about, and the Spirit of God is the one who makes an unadorned description possible for somebody who has been decorating one for years.
So here is what I believe is going out over somebody today.
You are doing real work, and calling it what it is has never once been pride. I am not building you up. Genesis 2:19 makes accurate naming the first assignment a human being was given, and it is the Holy Spirit and not my telling who turns that from a curiosity into something a person says out loud about their own life.
And this, which is the word I came with:
You are permitted to be accurate, and the shrinking was never protecting anybody. The written word says whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof, and the Spirit of God is the one who makes a plain word possible where a person has only ever used a small one.
One plain sentence, this week, with nothing on either end of it.
Declare this over yourself
- Phrase a little thing I do, you are not accurate and you never were. Genesis 2:19 has a name stand as the name of the thing, so by the Holy Spirit you do not describe my work in the name of Jesus.
- Fear of being somebody who took themselves seriously, you have no place in my mouth. The word makes accurate naming the first assignment there ever was, and by the Holy Spirit I am done getting there first with a small word.
- Father, You gave naming as the first work and You let the names stand. Your word says whatsoever he called it, that was the name thereof, so by Your Spirit I say it plainly this week, and I add nothing on either end.
Genesis 2:19
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