“But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is The Lord who judges me.” ~ 1 Cor. 4: 3,4
No wonder so much of the New Testament was written by Paul. He said the stuff that needed to be said and it seems without worrying what others would think of him. This is something that I still haven’t mastered and it looks like society hasn’t either. When are we going to stop caring about what other people think?
A couple days ago, our team had the delight of meeting white people (I mean an American missionary team that was here on a medical trip), but that’s literally what’s running through our heads after traveling to 11 different countries this year: WHITE PEOPLE!!! We mean this in the least offensive way possible, but can’t help feeling excited and a sense of relief after running into familiar people that speak our language, wear our clothes, and have our mannerisms. After I saw their skin and heard their familiar accent, I sat next to one of the Americans and shamelessly proceeded to ask her about her entire life. Starting from birth. Not really, but it was a little strange how we just attached ourselves. We were blessed and overjoyed by meeting them, but at the same time. . .it was weird. It was weird experiencing a short term missions team after living in this community and building relationships with the people here. It was weird watching them take pictures with the kids without talking to them. Our team discussed it later: the “weirdness”, and how jealous we felt of the kids we were living there with and pouring into. It was almost like seeing a relationship take place at arms length. Not trying to offend anyone here, but someone’s gotta say it. Why do humans do the weird things that we do? Why do we post pictures of food we eat on Facebook? I mean, why do we post half the stuff we put on Facebook? Why do we grow grass to cut it? Why do we use clean drinking water to wash our cars when so much of the world doesn’t have clean drinking water to DRINK? Why do we buy things we can’t afford? Why are people that are busy seem to be more worth our time than people that are free? Why is being “too busy for relationships” a compliment these days??? Why do we post pictures of random African kids we haven’t taken the time to get to know?
No judgment here. I do it too. But WHY? To impress people. Sometimes I feel like my personality and hobbies sound more like a resume to convince people that I’m lovable and have value. We work all the time without being present. We have relationships we don’t actually enjoy. We have things that don’t actually satisfy us. We have friends that don’t truly KNOW us. We have this perfect life to maintain after all and then we need to post pictures to prove it. We spend all this time “keeping up with the Joneses” when in reality we just need to be keeping up with Jesus. This has been something that Gods been trying to rid my mind of, most especially this month. Stop comparing. Stop covering things up. STOP caring about what other people think. And honestly, I want to. I want to be free to the point that I don’t even judge myself like what Paul says.
Isn’t this what all of us want deep down? Life can’t be about comparison. There’s too many people in the world to compare yourself to. I remember listening to a Tim Keller sermon a couple years ago. He stated that you may consider yourself proud that you’re attractive, intelligent, and talented. But you’re not. You’re only proud that you’re more attractive, more intelligent, and more talented than anyone else that you know and as soon as you meet someone who can do those things better, your identity is SHOT.
Why is comparison so unhealthy? I think in a way, when we live in comparison, we’re living out of a jealous heart. I find it incredibly difficult to love someone and be happy for someone that I’m constantly comparing my life to. Which makes sense why God says love is not jealous (1 Cor. 13:4). When we live to compare our lives, we don’t view ppl as ppl, but for what they can give us. There are so few things in life that we do without selfish intentions. Even when we do good deeds, we want someone to notice. I’m not so much concerned with getting rid of this desire, as I am with finding how this desire was put there? When it comes down to it, we want affirmation. Is that bad? Even Jesus sought affirmation from His Father and that’s why He obeyed Him. He lived ONLY to please God and in the process, didn’t care what others thought. He loved the “unlovable.” He forgave the “unforgivable.” He said the things that people were too insecure to say. The only issue is that most ppl on earth don’t have such an intimacy with this perfect father that affirms us when we do something right that only He sees. Because He isn’t as close, He isn’t as real and so we seek affirmation from ppl that are around us. This is why our alone time with Him is so sacred. How often is it that we slip away and we find it harder and harder to hear His voice and sometimes even believe in His existence. The more time we spend with Him, the more real He will be to the point that going to anyone but Him for affirmation, love, or advice will just sound silly.
Listening and obeying the voice of God is going to ruffle feathers, cause when Jesus obeyed the Father it ruffled feathers. So I guess it comes down to we can care what others think of us or what God thinks of us. And there is no in between, cause sooner or later, Christianity is going to contradict the norm and we’ll have to say something. It would be dishonest to ignore it and it just wouldn’t be loving others. It would actually be MORE logical to speak out and only care what God thinks. The truth is hard, but it needs to be applied otherwise life won’t make sense and it just makes sense that not every day will be a good day and not everything will go exactly the way we want it to all the time. Going to other people will be contradictory, confusing, and unsatisfying. Once again, proving the existence of a God and the need for ONE ultimate judge
Truly, our hearts were designed to be knit to something. To seek favor from something. To be seen, noticed, and loved by something. Let’s not rob God from seeking that from anything but Him.
“For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” ~ Galatians 1:10
He has called me higher,
Jenn
