No More What is it about you that makes you you?
H I G H E R T H I N G S _ 4
How much time do you spend worrying about what other people think? Do you wake up on Tuesdays and Thursdays and spend a little more time on your hair just because you-know-who will be sitting behind you in first hour? Just face it: you want to be noticed. Everyone does. Everyone wants to be liked. I’m sure you’ve imagined your teacher singling you out for getting the highest grade in the class.You’ve daydreamed about the girl you like telling all her friends about how great you are. You dream all this up and then believe it because you think that is what makes you unique. Or maybe you’ve given up. Have you stopped caring about what you look like or how well you do in school because your buddy list only has a dozen names, and half of them are family? You get depressed, don’t want to go to school, feel sick to your stomach, and can’t finish your homework. You hate being alone. Are you defined by what people think of you? It’s amazing how much of our attention is focused on what other people think. When we have 300 friends on Facebook but have spoken to only a fraction of them in real life, there’s something terribly wrong. Our concentration on what other people think is just plain selfish. God didn’t create us to be so obsessed with us.Think about Adam and Eve. What’s the first thing that they did after eating the apple? They covered up their nakedness and hid because they were ashamed.They were ashamed because, for the first time, their focus was on them rather than God. Maybe Eve thought her butt looked too big or Adam thought his gut could use some work. Don’t get me wrong; this isn’t a call to run around naked. But it is a call to remember what our Lord intends for us. It’s a call back to Eden before all the attention was on us, when the footsteps in the garden
