Sally Fields isn’t the only one who wants this assurance.
John 2: 23-25 23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. 25 He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.
We could all use a little more Jesus in us. When things are going well and people are singing our praises we would do well to remember His philosophy toward fame or support from the crowd. Unfortunately, we truly can’t help ourselves. We chase the approval, the endorsement, the favor of others.
Shoot we might even really know better or not particularly care about the opinion of those who get behind us but we still fall prey to our basic human instinct and the need for favor. Jesus didn’t though. See, he knew how fickle a crowd can be and how they could and would turn against a person. He knew better than to put his self-worth, his value, his psyche and himself in the care of others. He knew the outcome, maybe not now, but someday. We should know also, even if we’re not assured of our own physical death at the hands of the masses, that trusting them with ourselves is foolish. And yet we seem unable to help ourselves.
The allure of acceptance and the hope of popularity override our good sense. We forget what people are like even as we ourselves succumb to the same vagaries of the human condition. We tire of the familiar. We wish for the fall to earth of those who seem to soar and we believe that if it’s too good to be true, it’s certainly not true. Jesus came here as a man and he was unique as a man, however the people could not believe that he was the Son of God and so they tore him down as a man. I have to think that his humanity made this hurt, made this sting and all the more so because he knew what was in the hearts of all people.
We need to get a little of us out of our hearts and replace it with a little more of Jesus. Perhaps if we did that we could free ourselves from the chains that enslave us to the whims of others. Perhaps then we could love and sacrifice like the one who gave so much all the while knowing how things would turn out.
The Everyday Question: Whose approval do you crave and what will it do for you if you get it?
We probably don’t like to admit that we yearn for the approval of others. We want to be okay having our own approval of ourselves but that’s not easy. If this discussion or this topic might comfort a friend of yours, please share it with them.
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