Beware! It is dangerous to practice your piety before others. Jesus names the dangerous motivation: to be "seen by them" (verse 1), i.e., to be "praised by others" (verse 2). And the praise of others is addictive; the high regard and status people afford the impressive giver can seduce us.

I've not been a superstar giver of alms. By global standards I'm ridiculously wealthy, but by American standards, I don't have stellar alms to give. I won't be naming any libraries. But I do have other talents, and they are just as tempting to show off with. I can preach. I am trained to pray in public. I can sing and play guitar. I have plenty of ways to practice my piety "before others in order to be seen by them."

New York City pastor Michael Lindvall wrote a story about a minister, "Dave," who planned to invigorate his little congregation in a small town in Minnesota (Good News from North Haven). Dave fantasized about the glory that would come to him for his successful church growth. He imagined his picture in the paper and the townsfolk buzzing about his church's increase. Purchasing a packaged "church invigoration" program, he went to work—only to fall embarrassingly flat on his face.

The packaged program had publicly failed him in the pulpit, and the humiliated pastor feared that he and his ministry's legacy would disappear into nothingness. Unready to face "work," he went for a haircut. Chatty haircut talk with Harry the barber unfolded into a deep and healing ministry encounter. Later that night, after yet another church meeting, a tired Dave read stories to his kids until they fell asleep. He kissed them good night, and prayed for them. When I read that, my own eyes misted up.

PDP—Public Display of Piety—holds no lasting reward. The apostle Paul had once known all of the public markings of the devoted religious life: "circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless" (Phil. 3:4-6). But those things were as nothing to him in contrast to his precious gift of knowing Jesus Christ. He counted all his PDP as "rubbish" (Phil. 3:8; "dung" in the King James Version). What became most important to Paul was "to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings" (Phil. 3:10). Paul had tasted the glory of public recognition for PDP, and he spewed it from his mouth. Beware—lest we chase the wrong glory.

Michael Lindvall's story ends with Dave at his children's bedside reflecting that in contrast to all the most public acts of his ministry, his most important acts were touching the barber and reading to his kids. Lindvall concludes: "They were important because the mark a man or woman makes on this world is most often a trail of faithful love, and quiet mercies, and unknown kindnesses."

Next month:
A new way of fasting