Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

 

— George Eliot, Middlemarch

[Thanks for reading. This post continues our series Verses for Vocation: Poems on the Sacred in Everyday Life and Work. Check out our other posts on faith and work and spiritual growth for more resources on living an integrated Christian life. Subscribe to get the next post in your inbox.]

Faithful Obscurity

We have so many ways of keeping score:
Paychecks, profits, titles, traffic, fame.
How much is enough when winning always calls for more?
How many impressions and achievements make a name?

But it’s too easy to judge Ozymandias’s pride,
To step back and thank God we’re not like him,
To call retreat contentment and let comfort sap our stride.
Is there not something grand in risking life and limb?

I heard him call my name when I was small.
Smallness did not shame me then as now.
It was enough that I would give my all;
With joy I set my hand upon the plow!

Today, then, make small matters great.
Trade acclaim for work done well.
For love’s sake, do not hesitate.
Risk it all and do not tell.

Explanatory Notes

• “that river of which Cyrus broke the strength”: An allusion to Cyrus the Great diverting the Euphrates during the conquest of Babylon
• “Ozymiandias’s pride”: An allusion to Percy Bysshe Shelley’s sonnet “Ozymandias”
• “thank God we’re not like him”: An allusion to the prayer of the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable of Luke 18:9-14
• “set my hand upon the plow”: An allusion to Luke 9:62

Series image: The Stevedores in Arles (Coal Barges) by Vincent van Gogh, 1888.
Subscribe to get our next post in your inbox.
Support Mission Central.