You Can Forget the All-Star Stuff!
- Published
- in Encouragement, Grace
Yesterday I was in Dallas. Downtown Dallas. I was attending a one-day workshop, which was conducted in one of the meeting rooms of a large hotel. Throughout the lobby of this hotel were decorations that focused on this week’s National Hockey League All-Star Game to be held tonight in the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
As I walked through this hotel lobby, I saw hockey players. Most of them had a weathered look. One thing for sure, these guys were "All-Stars." The best of the best. The guys who play the game right. The guys who have incredible skill. The guys who play awesome defense. The guys who score big points. The best.
Do you ever look at some people and it just seems that they must be on God’s "All-Star" team? They seem to do life just right. They manage to walk with the Lord in a way that appears to be, well, exceptional. Not me. In fact, I don’t think most of us are God’s "All-Stars." Instead, we are people who are just trying to learn to walk with the Lord every day. Most of us are just trying to deal with life.
So, I look back through the years of my life and I see mess-ups, some failure, sin, and at times behavior that disappoints me — not to mention God. Yet, I also see progress, movement, and growth. Most of all, I see hope.
So here are a few suggestions:
1. Quit pretending to be an "All-Star." Just be you. Better yet, be who you are in Christ. The pressure is off! No need to prove to others that you are an "All-Star." (I need to hear this one every week.)
2. Relax and be who you are instead of worrying about how you might appear. So many of us are very self-conscious! We are very concerned about how we appear to others. We live in the addiction of their approval. Meanwhile, receiving their disapproval paralyzes us.
For one of the very first times, you lost me here. You went from asking "Do you know an All Star" to "You should not think that you are an All Star" in one sentence. I fully agree that we should not consider ourselves All Stars. It leads to arrogance and a host of other ills. But, wouldn’t it be great for someone to think I was an All Star for God? It means they think the way I live my life is consistent with the teachings of Jesus. Sure, they don’t know all the evil details of my life. And sure, I do not want to behave this way simply so they continue to think I am an All Star. But is their perception really wrong? And does it hurt them or me, or anybody?
I remember at church camp that we’d play softball every day. At the end of the week, the counselors would select the best of the campers to play on an all-star team. I wanted to be an all-star so bad it just ate my insides up. Year after year, I never made the all-stars. I was so focused on the all-stars that I had a terrible week in spite of all the other great things going on.I think the point that Jim was making was that that if you’re an all-star it will show in your life and that should be good enough. I didn’t hear him say making the all-stars is bad, just that we should be focused on our tasks at hand and not worry about the perception of others.
Both of these points get easier as one grows older – that is, if you’re paying attention and learning a bit of wisdom. The opinions of others – especially the imaginary opinions we carry in our heads about how others see us – don’t matter any longer. You finally figure out who the real audience is – God – and not only do not need the praise of others but don’t trust it when you do get it: what do they really know about you, anyway? You also realize you don’t need an all-star or hero to emulate and shudder at the thought someone might do so with you. You discourage it whenever possible. You’ve disappointed others and been disappointed too many times; you’ve been faithless and others have, too. If someone sees Christ in you, you rejoice; if they stop there, you grieve. You begin to long for the day you can be with the only one who never disappoints, is always faithful, never gives up, never fails. More and more, God becomes your hope – not just in your head or in your emotions, but deep down where you really live and hurt and need and hope, when the folly of youth and the ferocity of middle-age fade away. Then there is no need to give yourself pep-talks: you know, and you know you know. It will happen to every believer who remains soft clay in the hands of the Potter. (Is it possible to make line breaks? All the comments seem like one long, rambling, run-on paragraph.)
Dave,You are helpful! You are right. It is not very clear. I may have been in too much of a hurry! Anyway, thanks for communicating this.You make a good point in your comment. Of course, what you are saying is right. I was thinking (and failed to make clear) about the number of people who I’ve talk with who are very frustrated about not being "perfect" (They don’t say it that way but this in essence seems to be what they are saying.) I wanted to suggested that most of us who are God’s people are going to be human beings with flaws, sins, shortcomings, etc. who nevertheless are loved and cherished by God.Thanks!
Finrod,Great comment! Love what you say about disappointment. You are so right.I also like the way you emphasize that our real audience is God. That understanding is so significant.(Finrod, just want to make sure I understand. Are you having trouble breaking the comment into different paragraphs? )
Thanks Brad– I probably could have been clearer. I appreciate your story. You are right. It is so easy to get wrapped up in the perception of others instead of just being who we are.
Excellent observations, Jim. Even better advice. Thank you, -bill
I doesn’t look like indenting works, either.
Jim- It seems to me that the root of all this is judgementalism. A sin that I struggle with greatly – judging or pre-judging. This includes judging YOURSELF.
But the harder I pray about it and work on getting better about this, I have also learned to care less about what others think about me.
God is the only one that matters.
Be yourself – hard to do.
Jim,
Wow, what a thought! I think all of us struggle with this concept. In fact, I think that if we deny this struggle, we are probably not being truthful. You show me someone who truly doesn’t care about what others think of them and I will show you someone who doesn’t have many friends. I will also show you someone who is probably not encouraging many people to follow Christ because they have no good example to follow. At the same time, we all desire to be respected. I think all of us realize that the perception others have of us may be a bit overblown because they only see us when we are aware of being watched. In those cases, it is easy for someone else to put us on God’s All-Star team. But we are the only true measure of that and only God’s vote counts. I hope we can all be like the athlete who says they were not playing for individual recognition but rather to make the team better.
Jim, It’s so hard to get this printing for some reason. I have a hard time, I’m trying to say (a number of times) getting a comment started.
Great post!!!! Great point. So important for us to remember. And I can id with what you’re saying. Thanks.