Who Are You Trying To Impress: Application from Acts
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“We make a great error when we choose to find our approval from the opinions of others”
For months, every time Seth (my soon to be husband) and I drove past one of those electric Bird scooters scattered all over town, he would eagerly ask me if I wanted to ride one. He’s by far the more adventurous one of us and always looking for ways to try new things! However, each time I would find some excuse why I didn’t want to ride it (we were short on time, I wasn’t wearing the right shoes, and so on). I was making excuses. Because the truth is, I’d never ridden one before, and I was convinced I was going to look stupid trying to figure out the learning curve. The thought of careening down Main Street, unable to gain control, with lots and lots of eyes on me, was my actual nightmare.
See, here’s the thing about me: I hate to fail. If there is an opportunity to try something new, one of the first things that goes through my head is whether or not I think I will be good or successful at that new thing. If its too outside of my wheelhouse, I’m not excited to jump in. Because, well, I don’t want to fail and look stupid. A good portion of my thought life is spent calculating what is considered “cool” in whatever context I’m in. Being the one to fail never really feels “cool.” Therein lies the problem of my flesh: a focus on pleasing man more than pleasing God.
Galatians 1:10 “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”
When I get down to the bottom of it, the actual act of failure isn’t what I truly fear. The true fear is how it will alter the persona I’ve worked hard to create. My flesh thrives on praise from others and is deeply wounded when someone thinks ill of me. The good news is that I have a Savior that came and died to set me free from a vain life spent trying to be cool to others, so I spend my life serving him.
I’ve been taking notes from the Apostle Paul during the Acts series we are going through in our College and Young Adults class. Paul garnered great esteem for who he was in his flesh before he started following Christ. The man was impressive! His education was phenomenal, his zeal for his religion was hard to beat, and he came from an impressive and pure bloodline! Although, after Paul met Jesus Christ, he considered all he was in his flesh to be but dung (Phil 3:8).
When we hold up the most impressive things about us, the things we work so desperately to maintain because we think it will give us esteem in the eyes of others, we end up looking like garbage, dung, in comparison to the pure and holy man that is Jesus Christ. Paul spent his days consumed with the words of Jesus, not the words of others. He spent his time listening to the winds of the Holy Spirit, not the winds of popular culture. Paul was a man fixed on pleasing Christ above himself and others.
People-pleasing is exhausting because it’s an impossible pursuit. There is no way on earth everyone in my life is going to be completely pleased and satisfied with the way I live. We make a great error when we choose to find our approval from the opinions of others instead of first seeking that approval in Christ. If you’re in Christ, you’re accepted by him. We would do well to spend our thought life rehearsing the ways Jesus has approved of us, given us value, made us whole, and given us life when we had none. No human opinion can do that. Nobody else's words can give me life if they weren’t first the words of Christ. I want to keep growing in my understanding of who Christ says that I am and be wholly invested in making sure he is pleased with my life.
“...when no one else is watching, he is pleased.”
We please him when we do as Mary did. When we choose to sit at the feet of Christ and learn of him in his word, he is pleased. When we share about his saving blood with others, he is pleased. When we obey him in the seclusion of our minds, when no one else is watching, he is pleased.
Ephesians 1:6 “... wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”
So here's to hoping on electric scooters, in very public places, and yes, looking totally uncool while doing it. Here’s to learning to agree with Christ about what is acceptable instead of looking at the world around me to figure that out. Brothers and sisters, let’s be uncool for Christ.
JJ Holcombe is a discipler and small group leader in Midtown Baptist Temple’s College and Young Adults ministry. She also co-leads the Spoken Word Ministry, serves on the Connections team and Postscript podcast team.