Brass Plaques and Crosses 1 Cor. 3:5-4:21

Plaques are like plagues, if one won't kill you the other one will.

Wouldn't it be great to be freed from one of the great boat anchors that impedes our smooth sailing? We can become so full of ourselves and our indispensibility that we start collecting our own trading cards! "Where's my plaque of recognition because I'm important to God?" Paul reminds us in 1 Cor. 3:5-8 that most important lesson of all for Christians and especially leaders: God does not need us in the slightest but only chooses us by His good pleasure to work "through" us and not "by" us.
Here is the rub: our grandiose recognition verses the Cross. No one enjoys driving spikes into our wants and needs but that is exactly where God wants us. Crosses are for dying and taking yours up is going to be painful and costly. Selfishness need not apply for this ministry. So lets finally drive this spike in and get over ourselves. God doesn't need us or any superstars, not Paul or the polished Apollos, to complete His goals.
I was struggling with this post and then I received an email from a dear brother and church planter in Christ from Bangladesh, Mortuza Biswas. In his broken English he described it better than I have ever heard or read:

i’ll keep encourage the people, to tell others, about love of God! so, one day might my county will be safe, or even thou, our country will be save by Jesus. that is i dreaming. i know that, i am a little bug, and i am biting (eating) the wooden furniture. and one day, it will broke down. what i am saying that, traditional faith will broke down, and Christian faith will raise up.  that’s i am thinking. God can do anything, over a night, but He gave me an opportunity to join his work.