Simply Beautiful
Join me, Amy Keck, each week as I weave the simple wisdom of Scripture with the beauty of poetry. May each reflection be a gentle reminder that faith blooms through time spent in God's word.
Simply Beautiful
Blooming in the Wild: The Beauty of Serving in Secret
What if your greatest spiritual victories are the ones no one else will ever see? Wildflowers bloom abundantly in remote wilderness, offering their beauty freely with no audience but God himself. Their example challenges us to examine the deepest motivations of our hearts.
Drawing from Hannah Hurnard's transformative allegory "Hinds' Feet on High Places," today's episode explores the profound lesson of the wildflowers that bloom unseen. I share my personal struggle when God asked me to set aside teaching Bible studies—something I'd done since seventh grade—to focus on homeschooling my daughter. This unexpected direction forced me to confront uncomfortable questions: Whose approval was I really seeking? Could I serve faithfully without recognition? And most importantly: Is God enough for me?
Romans 12:1 reminds us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God—not as performances for others, but as worship to Him alone. The shepherd tells Much-Afraid that "the fairest beauties in the human soul, its greatest victories and its most splendid achievements are always those which no one else knows anything about." This counter-cultural perspective invites us to find our worth not in others' validation but in quiet obedience to our King.
—
Thank you for spending this time with me. If this episode encouraged you, consider sharing it with someone who might be uplifted by the message - “like good news shared in due season” (Proverbs 15:23).
For more reflections and gentle encouragement, visit www.amykeck.com.
Welcome to Simply Beautiful Podcast. This is Amy Keck. Thank you for joining me today. The topic today is Blooming in the Wild. Romans 12.1 says and so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and a holy sacrifice, the kind that he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him.
Speaker 1:Right after my dad's diagnosis with ALS, I purchased the book Heinz Feet on High Places. In fact, I purchased a copy for myself, my sister and my parents. We all read it and it really was a tremendous comfort after the initial shock of his diagnosis. If you have never read Heinz Feet on High Places, I urge you to buy a copy and read it. It truly is life-changing At least it was for me.
Speaker 1:I'd like to discuss a portion of the book with you today. It's about a crippled young girl named Much Afraid who is trying to make her way up a mountain to the high place. Throughout her journey, she must call to her shepherd for help and guidance. On this occasion, the shepherd gives her the following instruction. He says Much afraid, humble yourself and you will find that love is spreading a carpet of flowers beneath your feet, much afraid, looked at him earnestly. I've often wondered about the wildflower, she said. It does seem strange that such unnumbered multitudes should bloom in the wild places of the earth where perhaps nobody ever sees them, and the goats and the cattle can walk all over them and crush them to death. They have so much beauty and sweetness to give and no one on whom to lavish it. I'll begin by asking upon whom are you trying to lavish your beauty and your sweetness? This might seem a strange question right out of the gate, but seriously, who are you trying to please? Whose attention are you striving to secure? Whose approval do you most long to acquire?
Speaker 1:About 10 years ago, I realized I'd been spending most of my life trying to please the people around me. Yes, much of what I was doing was for the good of Christianity and for the service of the church, but I was doing it out of desperation, desperation to feel valuable, to feel worthwhile to the people around me and often even to the Lord. I knew God loved me. I knew he had chosen me. I knew he had called and redeemed me, but deep down inside I was striving to earn His love and His affection. I'm ashamed to say that it took me a great deal of time to realize this and it took even more time to kill those old habits. If I'm not careful, I still struggle with them to this day.
Speaker 1:It's a constant fight within me to choose obedience over performance and quiet submission over visible service. I now understand what 1 Samuel 15, 21-22 means when it says what is more pleasing to the Lord, your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to His voice? Listen, obedience is better than sacrifice and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. The shepherd looked upon much afraid and he said quietly nothing my father and I have made is ever wasted. And those little wildflowers have a wonderful lesson to teach. They offer themselves so sweetly and confidently and willingly, even if it seems that there is no one to appreciate them, just as though they sang a joyous little song to themselves. Do you offer yourself sweetly and confidently and willingly, even when it seems there is no one who appreciates it? You know, it's easy to serve the Lord when hundreds of people are watching. It's much harder to serve Him in secret, when no one is giving you an attaboy for the work that you have done.
Speaker 1:An example of this is the fact that I had been teaching Bible studies since I was in the seventh grade. I've always taught Bible studies. It's been an integral part of my life and my walk with the Lord, and it's been very strange when I felt the need to stop teaching in order to stay home to homeschool my daughter. And you might be thinking you know you could do both, which is true, but you can't do both when you believe God is asking you to do only one. I wrestled with this. My husband and I even went so far as to tour a school in our area to see if we should enroll our daughter for kindergarten next year. I didn't want to give up teaching God's word. I wanted to keep doing what I had always done and known. But deep inside I knew I would get more praise from teaching women the Bible than I would homeschooling a single kindergartner kindergartner.
Speaker 1:I'll continue this story in a moment, but for now I want to read to you another portion of this book. The shepherd is continuing to teach. Much afraid. With these words, he says, I must tell you a great truth much afraid which only a few understand. All the fairest beauties in the human soul, its greatest victories and its most splendid achievements are always those which no one else knows anything about or could even dimly guess at. Every inner response of the human heart to love and every conquest over self-love is a new flower on the tree of love.
Speaker 1:I believed God was asking me to lay aside my desires to teach Bible study and to commit to stay home this next year to teach my daughter. Why was this so difficult? Why was I wrestling in this? Why was it a constant and fierce struggle within me to stay home with my daughter? The other question I really felt the Lord stirring in me was just the simple question of him asking Am I enough for you, amy? Am I enough for you If you never teach another Bible study again? Am I enough for you? Well, I certainly had to respond yes, lord. Yes, you are enough for me. So I guess I'll ask you the same question Is God enough for you If he asked you to surrender a good work in order to do an invisible work?
Speaker 1:Would you If he asked you to give up something that you actually delight in? Could you Now? Trust me, he is not asking everyone to lay aside teaching his word. We are commanded to share it. We are commanded to make disciples. Matthew 28, 19 through 20, reminds us to go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you and, be sure of this, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. But sometimes, sometimes, he asks us to leave the 99 to shepherd the one. Sometimes, the greater work is the less visible work and we just have to trust him.
Speaker 1:The shepherd continued teaching much afraid. He said many. A quiet, ordinary and hidden life is a veritable garden in which loves, flowers and fruits have come to such perfection, that it is a veritable garden in which loves, flowers and fruits have come to such perfection that it is a place of delight where the King of love himself walks and rejoices with his friends. Some of my servants have indeed won great visible victories, and they are rightly loved and reverenced by other men. But always, always, their greatest victories are like the wildflowers, those which no one know about. Learn this lesson now, down here in the valley, much afraid, and when you get to the steep places of the mountain, it will comfort you.
Speaker 1:Whose attention are you trying to gain? Whose approval are you trying to secure? Is your greatest concern impressing others or obeying your shepherd? I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and a holy sacrifice, the kind that he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Romans 12.1.
Speaker 1:Romans 12.1 Do you offer yourself sweetly and confidently and willingly, even when it seems there is no one who appreciates you? Do you serve your family without expecting a pat on the back? Do you wash your family's clothes, cook your family's meals and clean your household toilets as, under the Lord? Trust me, I could create an entire podcast of the times I grumble and complain or get totally bent out of shape because no one is appreciating me. But really, would you be content to serve if no one ever noticed or appreciated another thing you did?
Speaker 1:And lastly, and I'll say most importantly, is God enough for you? Are you content to be a wildflower, flower To bloom in the wild, to bloom and live and die, only to be seen by the king of love himself? This is really a tough question, but it's worth considering. I'd like to leave you with my poem entitled the Wild Places. I hope it encourages you. Today, love spreads a carpet of flowers. They lie beneath one's feet, often found in the wild places, the places many don't see. They offer themselves completely, singing beautiful songs. They're happy to love without return and flourish where they belong, created one. Listen closely, listen and take to heart the fairest beauties of human soul are victories that never depart Many. A quiet, hidden life, life unknown by this world, are a great delight for their king, like wildflowers hid from the world.
