Whose Approval Matters?

I was thinking of how others' opinions shape up my idea of who I am. It indeed is amazing that we give so much significance to what others have to say about us and possibly not so much about what we think is right. Be it my roundness in shape, my ideas about movies, music and politics and my idea about what is right and wrong in life, they all have a heavy influence of the opinions of others. The other day someone in Delhi said that I have grown balder and I spent needless hours looking anxiously at my receding hairline. Someone else suggested that I had become fairer and I couldn't help gazing my skin. The other day a few of my friends read my writing on this blog and that made me realize that I wrote well.

On a slightly serious note, do I not decide about helping others based on the approvals of others? Do I not work a particular way to seek someone's appreciation? Do I not write anything with a view of how others will react? Am I really free?

Well, that leads to another question, how indeed can I become really free? If I stop worrying about what others think about my deeds, it can make me reckless. Many of our generation, and possibly of the generations to come, will follow the reckless path to their own peril. I have witnessed most believers of freedom tread that downward spiralling path, primarily due to the fact that if they tend to think themselves as the absolute authority of their lives and have desires of living a 'different' and 'unique' life, sinful things attract them most as these days sin has indeed been skillfully packaged as 'different' and 'unique'.

Well, the final point which I wish to drive you home is that let not the world decide your fete, let you not be seeking their approval, let you not chase what the world thinks is different and unique, instead, let God take control of your thoughts and actions, let Him approve of your deeds, let He be a witness to your uniqueness and difference, and let Him appreciate your work. This is, since nothing but His and His alone consent matters. It is His approval upon our homegoing that will see us reign with Him.

(The picure here is from last year's Christmas programme aptly titled "The Reason for the Season")