That Time I Was Confused for the Uber Driver

That Time I Was Confused for the Uber Driver
What started as an awkward misunderstanding became an unexpected lesson in humility. 

I recently attended an incredible missions conference with many of the missionaries and scholars whose books, articles, and videos have fundamentally shaped my heart and perspective on missions over the last few decades.

In between sessions, I was standing in the lobby with a fresh cup of coffee when one of the conference speakers walked up to me. We had never met personally, but I knew he was aware of our work at The Stone Table, so I was excited to engage with him. 

“I’ll be ready in just a few minutes,” he said, smacking me on the shoulder so hard my coffee began spilling out all over the floor. “Do you want me to meet you here or by the front door?” 

He thought I was his Uber driver. 

Then his eyes glanced down at my name tag, and it all clicked for him. He was terribly embarrassed.  

“Happy to take you anywhere you’d like to go!” I told him (even though I had no car to drive him in). We both had a good laugh as I grabbed a napkin to wipe the coffee stains off my shoe. 

We Were Not Designed for Glory 

Humbling moments like this are good for all of us.  

Missionary Dick Brogden was just with us here in Indianapolis for our Christian Business Breakfast. He started the morning with a sobering charge: 

“We were not designed for glory.” 

I’ve been chewing on that a lot the past few weeks. It’s not just that we shouldn’t take the glory or that it’s inappropriate to point at ourselves, it’s that we are literally not designed to carry it. It will eventually break us. 

Beth Moore once put it this way: 

“Humans were not fashioned by God for celebrity. We can’t take it, I’m telling you. It’s too much. To be greatly adored or greatly abhorred either one is crazy-making… A lot of celebrities crash but all of them crack.  If God lends you an audience for the gospel—and, mind you, it will just be lent, not kept—keep your head down, keep mature people around you who can tell you when you’re an idiot, prepare to be humbled constantly and submit to it.  We do the lifting up of Jesus. God does the drawing. Just serve as faithfully as you know how.”

I understand that most of us aren’t “celebrities,” but all of us crave our own version of glory. And in that way, all of us should wrestle with these words. Ever since Eden, humanity has been trying to steal a weight we were never designed to carry.  

It can be really subtle: 

• We don’t just want our kids to thrive. We want people to know that we are parents who raised kids who thrive. 

• We don’t just want our ideas to help. We want people to know we were the one who had the idea. 

• We don’t just want to serve others. We want others to notice how much we are sacrificing. 

• We don’t just want Jesus to be seen. We want to be seen as the one standing next to Him. 

We were not designed for glory, even in subtle ways like this. We will eventually crack!  

We aren’t main characters in a story we are writing about ourselves. We are beloved members of the supporting cast in a far greater Story—a redemptive Story of cosmic proportions centered on the glory of Jesus alone. That’s not a downgrade. It’s the role of a lifetime we were fashioned and designed to flourish in! 

So I guess it’s good to be confused for the Uber driver every now and then. It reminds us that we weren’t designed to be the center of the Story. And that is very good news.