When we wake up in the morning, our routine starts. For some of us, it’s the same every day. For others, you open your eyes not knowing what the day will bring, or even the next ten minutes for that matter. But we do wake up, we do open our eyes, and we do live that day, whatever our schedules include.
During the course of the day, we think, we speak, and we act based on thousands of decisions, preconceived notions, and experiences. Throughout the course of a day we consciously or subconsciously live our lives to please someone—whether it’s Jesus, someone else, or ourselves.
I asked myself, “At my core, am I living to please Jesus or to please man?”
Even if I think I’m living to please Jesus, am I actually pleasing man because of the influences effecting my decisions? I’m not talking about a self-pleasing manner, I am talking about really searching to understand why I do what I do, say what I say, think what I think, and believe what I believe. In my decisions, am I remembering what my pastor or friend said about something, or what the Bible says about it?
If we as believers are living to please Jesus, our decisions and actions should be wrapped in His love for people, not in judgment. Judging is not our place. If we are living our lives to please man, even with Godly intentions, it is really man’s expectations that we are trying to please.
Here’s the thing about trying to please expectations (even our self-inflicted ones): it can be damn hard. It can be unrealistic. It can take our core focus away from living a life to please God. Thinking, speaking, and acting because that’s what “whoever” would want us to do, can be extremely harmful. But, when you are surrounded with “great” people, acting on their behalf can be easy to do. We can become conditioned to it.
So please, as you go to sleep tonight, before you wake up tomorrow and start your routine, think through your day. Think about whether or not what you did or said, or who you talked to were based on a life trying to please Jesus or man.
This is a challenge for myself that I am working on—rewiring how I think through these things, how I live my day. Let’s work on it together.
Keith Sampson
Executive Coordinator – God of Hope