Outstanding achievement can certainly get a person noticed. Achievement often leads to fame. Who in our media-saturated culture hasn’t heard the names of Michael Jordan, Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey, or Stephen King? They have all performed at a high level in their chosen fields of experience and have, in the process, become household names.

But what exactly is fame worth? Mark Twain didn’t think a whole lot of it. He once said, “Fame is a vapor; popularity an accident.” Fame rarely lasts. It waxes and wanes according to changing public tastes.

Respect, on the other hand, is earned through experience and relationship. I knew a gentleman in Paraguay who will never be famous, but he has earned my respect. He volunteered to help in one of our counseling ministries. He was poor, unkempt, and could not read well. One day a medical doctor walked into the counseling center, and this humble brother led the doctor to Jesus Christ. The doctor brought back three friends, and they also accepted Christ. All because of a poor man with a scraggly beard and rumpled clothes. This man lived out 1 Samuel 18:14: “In everything he did he had great success, because the Lord was with him.” Reaching your world for Christ doesn’t require fame; it only requires respect earned with a godly life.

This is Luis Palau.