Today I was reminded of a time as a young Christian how eager I used to be to impress people, to show how mature I was, how good a Christian I could be or how much wisdom I appeared to have for my age. Maybe this is too big an admission to make and maybe it reveals deep hidden secrets of my inner self but I think being honest even if it feels like being too honest is still the best approach. Actually I think this is probably true of many people, most of us are keen to portray ourselves in the best light possible to come across as likeable and loveable. Its the reason why quite often we don’t say what we really mean for fear that this will make us unpopular or even disliked. I for one was quite embarrassed when I realised how hard I used to try to please people especially people in authority like my school teachers or my local church pastor.
Fortunately I grew up (…a bit) and I realised that being aligned with truth is more important then pleasing people or being appreciated. this is not always a comfortable position to be in as sometimes it means being a lonely voice when everyone else is screaming the opposite. As I thought about this I realised that history shows us how true this often is. There are so many examples of people who stood up for truth and justice, for righteousness and Godliness who stood alone when nobody gave them the time of day. later on however sometimes even only after their deaths were they granted the hero status by the populous majority for the principles they stood for, and deserved so. Names like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, and many many more. Even today if you look carefully in our lifetime there are people around who don’t fit the normal mould of society, they might be laughed at or ridiculed right now portrayed as fools but my advise to you is watch them closely today as these are the ones likely to be called yesterday’s heroes tomorrow.
As I thought about all this I remembered this is how it was for Jesus during his lifetime too. He was often ridiculed and made a fool of. He had a reputation as a glutton and a drunkard feasting all the time and a friend of tax collectors1 and sinners ( Luke 7:34) . Ridiculous as it sounds now such was his reputation among the main stream. The first thing we have to realise from that is that He must have spent considerable time with these people to be branded as such, Secondly we realise that He had no interest in appearing as a holy man, or Godly man or in any kind of way a religious man else he would not have spent all that time with these unsavoury characters.
in that alone Jesus teaches all of us an important lesson. All too often we spend far too much time and energy on appearing to be good, polite, religious people and so we spend a lot of our time mixing with likeminded people, people who can help us enhance our image, or people who pander to our ego and tell us how amazing we are. Jesus on the other hand was busy being friends with people who most needed His help.
I smiled at myself when it occurred to me that in recent weeks I spend more time in the pub then I do in church, I am not ashamed about that, and its not because I don’t love the people who go to church, its just a sign of how far I have come, I’ve got an eternity to spend with people who like me. but right now I’d rather be known as a drunkard and glutton and being a friend of people who really need help the most. That is a far greater reward then any other label which may make me more palatable to the majorities.
1these were people classed as the lowest of the low in that society at the time
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