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All glory belongs to God: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” God, of course, is generous and shares His glory. He may speak in whispers, but He allows us to share in His glory in many ways. On what occasions does this happen, we may ask? To be specific, one way in which it happens is when He blesses a woman with new life and elevates her to the status of motherhood. A mother shares in the glory of God. Being so honored by God, she does not need the approval of society. In other words, she accepts “glory without fanfare.”
Reversing the previous three words, we have “fanfare without glory.” Champion athletes receive a great deal of fanfare even if their personalities remain unknown to those who cheer them. Fanfare is collective praise for some feat that a person has accomplished, such as winning an Olympic medal. But it is wholly exterior. It does not enter the soul of the athlete. It is not glory in the truest sense of the word.
Jennifer Jones is an Olympic champion. She is regarded by many as Canada’s premier female curler. She is accustomed to hearing the roar of approval. She understands, however, that how she responds to her accomplishments and how she values her life are two entirely different things. The crowd praises people whom they do not know. But praise can be a poison that affects a person’s better judgment. It is well known that there are athletes and actors who cannot live without applause. Their unfortunate destiny is loneliness.
In her book, Rock Star: My Life on and off the Ice, she recounts how a horrific knee injury that required expensive surgery placed her in a position to make an important choice. She was pregnant. On hearing this, a private support group representative said to her, “Do you plan on keeping the baby?” Jennifer found this acid remark “shocking.” The term “keeping” sends a sinister message. What does a mother do with her baby? She cares for it, loves, it, raises it. She does far more for her child than “keeping” it. “Keeping” is motherhood stripped down to a bare minimum. It virtually identifies a mother with a housekeeper or a lighthouse keeper. To keep something is to be detached from it. “Are you going to keep the car or sell it?”
“I told him,” Jennifer reports, “I most definitely did, and how I had wanted a baby and was overjoyed by my pregnancy.” The representative retorted by pointing out that another athlete he worked with “chose a different path and had an abortion. She felt that her sport was more important at this point in her life.” There was nothing left to be said. The conversation was over.
Using the word “path” is an attempt to equalize the two choices. One path leads to life; the other leads to death. But how can they be equal? Jennifer chose the path to glory. The smile her baby would send to mother Jennifer would be far more appreciated than the collective praise of a group of strangers. Glory without fanfare is infinitely more precious than fanfare without glory. Motherhood is a participation in God’s glory. God initiates life in the mother. This is not a trivial point. It occurs away from the camera, taking place in the mother’s body. “Save us,” Thomas Hardy might say, from the “madding crowd.”
Robert Frost’s most quoted poem, The Road Less Traveled, written in 1915, has become a cult classic. It is brief, but 21 words, and to the point. Two roads (or “paths” we might say) diverged in a wood, and “I took the one less traveled, and that has made all the difference.” It is a poem that celebrates non-conformity, going against the grain of culture. It suggests having the courage and independence to take the path that leads to something more personally fulfilling. It is a strike for personal authenticity.
One may well wonder today that in certain circles, bringing a child to term represents the less traveled road. If that is the case, it epitomizes misplaced glory. As seventeenth century theologian Thomas Brooks has stated, “A man’s most glorious actions will at last be found to be but glorious sins, if he hath made himself, and not the glory of God, the end of those actions.” And nineteenth century preacher, Charles H. Spurgeon, has said: “You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed you glorifying in yourself.”
Praise can go to our heads. When a multitude rises to its feet and applauds us, it becomes a challenge to remain humble. Our self-praise is exaggerated when we allow others to praise us or when we praise ourselves. There are no standing ovations for motherhood. They are not needed. The loving intimacy that transpires between a mother and her newborn babe is a shared experience of the glory of God. It is an anticipation of heaven where everything becomes glorious.
Photo by Bethany Beck on Unsplash
