I want to take a moment to apologize to each and every person I have come into contact with through my life. This may sound odd, but I would like to ask your forgiveness for something. You see, I’ve spent time and energy, two things I don’t have in abundance and neither do you, on trying to make you happy, to try and make sure that you like me and what I’m doing. I don’t mean that I’m simply trying to be nice, I mean that I’m wanting you to like me so that you will say nice things about me, and tell your friends what a jovial guy I am, and inflate my ego just a little bit more.
What I really mean to say is that I’ve been spending time pursuing the adulation and acceptance of you, when I should be spending time pursuing the path put before me by Him. When I die, I don’t have to answer for how many people I’ve made happy, or how many Facebook friends I have, or how many people thought I was an OK guy. I have to answer for what things I’ve done in this life which have helped to further God’s plan.
It’s not in my job description to get you to like me. At work, I’m paid to do a job and do it well. I’m not expected to make friends, but I am expected to do what I’ve been tasked to do. At home, I’m not to be my children’s best friend. I’m their father, with all the rights, privileges, and duties ascribed to that title. It’s my responsibility to make sure they have food, shelter, clothing, and to provide them an example of a Christian. If they don’t like me sometimes, that’s OK because sometimes they won’t like me at all. At church, I have a job to do as well. I attempt to point the worship of the people to God and make every effort to keep it off of me and my team.
Sometimes I feel like I’m guilty of tickling your ears. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 says:
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
Have I been more interested in making people like the music, or have I been pursuing sound doctrine? It would be nice to do both, but sometimes I fear I’ve sought after the former at the expense of the latter.
At the base of all this is that the earthly things we do are typically to bring us some kind of attention. If someone is nice to me I often begin to wonder what it is they want from me. Granted, I’m pretty cynical, but that’s the way many of us look at life. We will do this thing because it attracts people to us, because it will make them want to do something for us. My friend recently wrote on Facebook, “Men may draw a crowd, it takes God to draw a heart.” No matter what I do, I can’t make your decision to come to Christ any quicker or easier. No matter how much I try to make you happy or draw you in, nothing I do will affect your heart. The things I do or teach may help you come to a more intellectual understanding of God, but it will never cause your heart to turn to Him. Not until the Holy Spirit decides that your heart is ripe and ready will you make that final decision for Christ.
So, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that it’s taken me 34 years to realize that not everyone will or needs to like me. I’ve been pretty independent for most of these years, but always with that little twinge under the surface that doesn’t want to rock the boat too hard for fear that someone will get upset. I’m ready to lose friends if it means that Christ gains followers.
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