GREAT WITHOUT GLORY
The memorial was in New York City near the Seamen’s Church Institute, within a stone’s throw of the waters of the port; and on it was chiseled this:
IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE
OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE MERCHANT MARINE
WHO, IN THE WORLD WAR OF 1914 – 1918
WITHOUT FERVOR OF BATTLE OR PRIVILEGE OF FAME
WENT DOWN TO THE SEA AND ENDURED ALL THINGS.
THEY MADE VICTORY POSSIBLE
AND WERE GREAT WITHOUT GLORY.
Since reading these words I have reflected any number of times on that phrase, “and were great without glory.” Those words beautifully describe so many people I have had the privilege of knowing. Inconspicuous lives. Men and women who never considered themselves important. Their existence is submerged in routine tasks. They are not marked out for any shining recognition in what they do from day to day. There is nothing about them that is dramatic. They are working each day to provide for their families. They are doing their round of housekeeping, and taking care of little children. They are helping their neighbors, and visiting the sick. They devote themselves to infirm parents and sick companions. On Sundays they teach a little class of children the Bible as they have done for years. They prepare food for the bereaved families in time of death. They carry meals daily to the Ronald McDonald House. They grade Bible Correspondence Courses and mail them to countries they will never see. They prepare medicines for Medical Mission trips, and gather supplies for victims of natural disasters. They visit nursing homes and check on the elderly. They faithfully attend worship services and give of their means according to their ability. They sing for funerals. Their voices are heard but they are never seen. They pray for themselves, their families, and those with special needs.
It was of such people that Phillips Brooks, over a century ago, said, “It is not the active people to whom we owe the most, . . . . . . not those who, meteor-like, are ever on the rush for some visible charge and work. It is the lives, like the stars, which simply pour down on us the calm light of their bright and faithful being, up to which we look and out of which we gather the deepest calm and courage.”
Such people are truly “Great without glory!”
JOHN GIPSON
Little Rock, Arkansas