In continuation with the series 'The One thing Needful':
We have already touched upon other factors like Money/Wealth , Power/Prestige & Approval /Acceptance in previous posts; this week let us look at a new factor: RECOGNITION /The feeling of being Acknowledged / Valued. Every one of us , at some point in our life have craved for it but is it really The One Thing Needful?
Shifting the Focus from Me to Him
John 3: 30 “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.”
I would like to share with you 6 words (3 I’s + 3 A’s) related to Recognition.
Part 1: The 3 I’s related to Recognition.
1) Impression
2) Idols
3) Identity
Let us now see them one by one :
1) Impression:
We all know the saying “The first impression is the best impression” but is this always true? We live in a world that thrives on Impressions. Getting a job in a good company today, depends not only on performance but also the impression you make on the Interview Board. You need to know the right people, sound right, dress right, speak right, etc….While focussing on making the right impressions helps us to get what we want in life: money, relationships, friends, luxuries etc. Many times it has a dangerous almost fatal side. It turns us into clones, who do what everyone else does and thus causing us to forget who we really are and what we really want in life. What a twist of the word IMPRESSION -by definition, instead of making a lasting effect of OURSELF on the other person, WE are molded into an identical impression in the world cast! Why then do we even bother with "Impressions"? We try to make good impressions so that we will be recognized as successful but how can this be called success when we lose ourselves in gaining this recognition? Caught up in the rat race, we become rats. Rom 12: 2 warns us of this : "Do not to be conformed to the ways of this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds to do God’s perfect will for us.”
2) Idols:
An Idol refers to anything in life that we give more importance to than to God.
It may even be good things but if it matters to us more than God, it has become our IDOL. Do we idolize some people in our lives? Or are you obsessed with beauty / knowledge /health /movies/ music / food/ fashion/smoking/ some addiction? What controls you? : Work, wealth, fame, applause, career, sports, hobbies, travelling? Are you an Approval Junkie? Or are you a Control Freak trying to be your own God? Anything becomes the idol in our life if we allow it to dictate to us our life choices and depend too much on it for our happiness or security. If we talk to some of our IDOLS(highly successful people in their respective fields) about their achievements, they will without a doubt tell us how their trophies and medals fill their showcases but never fills the God shaped vacuum deep down inside of them. That place in them and in each and every one of us is reserved for our Lord God Almighty.
For more on the God shaped hole: http://sparkylaurie.blogspot.com/2011/06/16th-june-2011-what-is-that-missing.html
3) Identity:
Identity refers to those Personal Traits that differentiate us from everyone else. That unique thumbprint of ours, those endearing qualities and irritating weaknesses inherent in each of us handpicked and given to us by our Maker that makes the “M” in ME and the “U” in YOU. Today the world all over seems to be suffering from a new kind of Illness – the Malady of Identity Crisis. The symptom? Repeatedly asking the question: "WHO AM I?" The main reason for this confusion is that the world we live in today is driven by the motto “YOU ARE WHAT YOU DO” and so we are constantly trying to prove ourselves by our deeds and accomplishments. This guideline by which we live today is sadly a big fat lie straight from the pit of Hell. How far it takes us from the truth !
It is in fact, a downright insult to Our Creator "who has Himself fearfully and wonderfully knit us together in our mother’s womb and ordained all the days of our lives even before we were born." Psalms 139: 13-15. All our lives we try to accomplish things, get awards/rewards etc just to prove ourselves but the truth is that we have been looking for our Identity in all the wrong places. Our Identity does not comes from inside or from outside but from Above.
Eph 2:10 “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Why then do we toil after Recognition in this world? In my next blog post “Is the One Thing Needful Recognition/Applause- Part 2, I hope to talk more about why this may be so.
Click to enjoy this beautiful song: “Who am I that you are mindful of me , that you hear me when I call?” http://youtu.be/lcxKRsn-hGcTake care,God bless,
Sparky Laurie
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