APPROVAL HOUNDS

Okay, all of you approval-seeking hounds, gather round.  I am your leader.  I spent most of my life with the singular vision of pleasing everyone on earth.  It was an unnoticed obsession; unnoticed by myself.

To escalate the problem I became a minister....for a church....rutted in the fact that its people are cantankerous and....very difficult to please.  Paranoia increased and my desire to please all heightened.  I am your leader!

But here are a few things I have learned.  Jesus said not everyone will like us.  Boo.  He didn't stop there.  He said if we were to follow him we must be concerned if everyone does like us.  Boo Hoo.

He put me in a real bind.  Everyone has to like me else I won't be....liked!  Terror hits those nerves.

But Jesus is right.  To take our stance for him, for his Father, for his Spirit, we will have to choose whom we will confess as true.....the Trinity or some of our social popularity. 

I have learned through him to let things go.  Just let them go.  If people are upset...and some always are...I cannot fret or worry over this.  They have problems and it sometimes comes out against me.  They don't mean it and I can't fix it.

I have learned from Jesus to obsess over the things going right.  Right now is a wonderful moment.  Once I could not enjoy right nows because I was busy arranging and manipulating people to like me....then I would be all right.  Not so.  I am all right now. 

So, little group of wannabeliked, get over it.  If you are liked by all; Jesus doesn't want you to be.  He cautioned us against it; but we think we know better.  Some won't like you.  That is totally up to them.  You have flaws.  They can choose to like you if they want.  Jesus will empower them to do so if they will yield. 

Your roll is to love your neighbor....like them....and such is your choice.  It isn't a matter of everyone liking you because that isn't going to happen.  Life is a matter of noting the wonder of God all around and then walking through those gardens filled with inner awe of the abundant Life He affords.

Approval hounds, we must realize not everyone will like us and it doesn't mean days and nights of depression.  It means earth life is going on.  Be lifted to the kingdom life of God...where soft mattresses of acceptance and rest are not the norm; but where nails and scars from the cross are.