For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do. (Hebrews 6:10)
There is another body of names and faces equally deserving of our praise. They are the lesser lights, the forgotten heroes, the unknowns, the “nobodies” who paved the way for the “somebodies.” Without these willing unknowns, no leader can ever carry out his or her calling. But how easy it is to forget them.
Two dangers lurk in the shadows of leadership. One is the reluctance on the part of the leader to become virtually unknown, forgotten, and overlooked in the accomplishment of an objective. The second is the negligence of strong natural leaders who fail to recognise others who deserve much of the credit.
I’m going to ask you to make a commitment to the Lord to be, if necessary, as unknown as possible in your position of influence. This is a genuine test of strong leadership. If you desire fame and recognition, you will most likely fail as a leader and your efforts will go unrewarded for all eternity. That’s not a threat: it’s a fact. Jesus spoke directly to this point:
“Take care not to practice your righteousness in the sight of people, to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1 NASB)
And in even stronger words, He declared:
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. (20:25–28 NASB 1995)
It may sound strange to our twenty-first-century ears, but God is ready to bless some capable leaders who genuinely do not care who receives the glory. Such leaders are all too rare, but what a wonderful discovery when we stumble across a few outstanding people who don’t want to be superstars and willingly remain genuine servants.
Several people like this appear in the eleventh chapter of Nehemiah’s journal. We find here the crosses of unknown, obscure, forgotten people (with unpronounceable names!). But they represent a massive force that makes the Word of God exciting. All of them willingly gave of themselves. “Willing unknowns” rarely if ever enjoy recognition for their contributions. The Scripture rarely mentions the name of any one of them.
