Who Gets the Credit?

In 1996, I came up with a t-shirt idea for Southern Wesleyan University known as the “Swuperman.”  I asked Mike Keaton, one of the admissions counselors at the time, if we could do a shirt with a Superman type logo with a “WU” beside it.  The next day, he had the design ready and the rest is history.  Thousands of the “Swuperman” shirts have been sold across the country.  I saw one at the Goodwill in Aston, PA one day in 2007 and knew this thing was huge.

I formed the bad habit over the last 15(good gravy has it been that long) years of making sure everyone knew the shirt was my idea.  Because I never received money for the idea I have had the mindset of “Well, I’m at least going to get intellectual property credit for this!”  I always give Mike credit for the design, but I don’t think Mike’s been playing the “toot his own horn” game like I have over this shirt.

For some reason, I have been trying to “tip the scales” by doing this.  Somehow, I thought if I could get “credit” for people for this idea that it would pay off some how in the long run.  That somewhere, someone was keeping count and this tactic would benefit me in the long run.  I’m writing all this to say,”Sorry for being a jerk about this shirt.  I hope they sell thousands more of them.”

All of this came to mind the other day while I was helping at our local soup kitchen.  I was speaking with a lady having lunch who added,”You know, we always leave some money in the donation box.”  I was thinking that was a nice thing to do, but she felt she had to let someone that her and her sister weren’t free loading off of anyone.  She was trying to get “credit” from me.

It seems like this is a human instinct.  People will give millions of dollars to a cause/school/organization as long as their name is on the plaque.  Sometimes, no plaque=no money.  It’s not enough to know that God is watching.  We want humans to know the score too.  It’s kinda strange that I see most of this behavior from people who live by Ephesians 2: 8-9

⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.-NIV

Why are we seeking credit when our “account” has already been settled if we have faith in Christ?  The very next verse(my life verse) states

¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

We are not saved “by” works but “for” works.  Yes, we are supposed to be doing good deeds.  Yes, we are supposed to give of our time, talents, and treasure sacrificially but….it’s not our job to make sure someone is keeping score and giving us “credit.”  That position has been filled is way above our pay grade.

Finally, I want to say this has nothing to do with giving “credit” where it is deserved.  We should give it liberally.  We should make sure that people know their efforts and investments in Kingdom work are appreciated.  Sometimes, it’s appropriate to do this publicly with a plaque.  It’s when we start asking,”where’s  my plaque?” that we start getting into trouble.