When you reflect on your life, what kind of things do you do or think about, that make you feel like you are succeeding or significant? For some it may be a growing bank account or financial assets, how frequently you travel or how many places you have visited. For others it comes from the location or type of house you are living in or the car you drive. It may also come from your academic achievements, social recognition, the status of your friends, the size of business you own or level of responsibility you have where you work. This certainly isn’t a complete list, but the list should provoke thoughts of where it seems you draw your sense of significance.
On the other hand, what kind of things do you do or think about, that make you feel like you are failing or not doing well in life? It may be when someone demeans, criticizes or rejects you or you receive a low score on a test or work evaluation. Others are discouraged with themselves when they consider their health, indebtedness, or social status. For some, they allow their children’s achievements, social status, accomplishments or behavior to either make them feel good or bad about themselves.
If it were possible to reduce the fundamental trigger point down to one thing it would most likely be related to our assumption of how others see us. If wealth, status symbols as well as the responses of others were extracted from the equation, our self-esteem would be dramatically different. Peer pressure influences more than children or youth. It also has a powerful grip on adults of every age. The religious community is not immune to this peer pressure. The media understands this phenomenon and will do all they can to leverage it to sell products or change public opinion be it regarding politics or accepted human behavior.
While the Bible is full of profound statements, one of Jesus’ statements that has lingered with me for decades is How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God (John 5:44, ESV)? Jesus relates a person’s ability to have strong faith in Him or the Father, to one’s fascination with the approval of those around them. Jesus was the premier person for being free from such peer pressure. He said and did ONLY what He saw or heard from His Father (Jn 5:19). He listened to a different drumbeat and had a different agenda—His Father’s plan relating to our salvation.
What might all this say to us today? Two unique things. First, a deep, genuine belief in Christ will ultimately produce a profound significance based entirely on one’s position in Christ. After all, you and I must be valued enough for Jesus to be crucified on the cross for us. Secondly, because of His obsession with His Father instead of public opinion He was able to rise above peer pressure and ultimately be the most powerful leader the world has ever known. He was rewarded for that full commitment by ultimately enjoying the incredible pleasure of being seated at the right hand of His Father in Heaven (Col 3:1). He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6, KJV)
It could be very life-giving for you to take time to take a hard look at which factors make you feel most significant and which discourage or depress you. Doing so would enable you to chart a new course for experiencing the liberating and most abundant life Jesus made possible for you. He also shared the secret path to living out that preferred life when He said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Mark 12:30, ESV). When your all is focused on Him, the words, attitudes and responses of your peers will grow strangely dim.
This! So much truth in our hiding ourselves in him. I had some good quiet times with the Lord that have revealed I have had more fear of man’s opinions of me and that has kept me from being a fruitful vine. There is freedom in His love and acceptance and power and a sense of mission when we follow without fear or sense of self-preservation. Letting go and letting God! May the body of Christ find our true worth in God sacrifice and his love!