12-4-19

My son came into the living room and said, “You know, the story of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is kind of a bad moral story. All the other reindeer made fun of him until he got to lead the sleigh. They only decided to be his friend because of how popular he was.” I had never given the story that much thought, but he is right! I remember in the little animated movie that Rudolph wanted to fit in with the other reindeer, so he rubbed coal all over his red nose. When the coal wiped off, they all started laughing and calling him names and he ran away. Rudolph was kind of a people pleaser, and wanted everyone to like him. I know this story has absolutely nothing to do with the Bible, but it really got me to thinking about the Gospels. They are chocked full of the wonderful accounts of the life of Christ. When you read them, you realize that there were so many different kinds people following Jesus while He walked on this earth. Some of the people followed Him because they knew in their hearts that He was the Messiah, but there were others who more or less followed Him just because of His popularity. We don’t know every single person’s motive, but one thing is for certain, Jesus was not in the people pleasing business at all! He was nothing like the hero in the silly reindeer story who was all smiles when the bullies decided to like him. Jesus was all about the Fathers will, nothing more and nothing less. Oh, how I long to be just like this! How many times do I fall into the trap of being a people pleaser? More times than I’d like to admit. Ya’ll I don’t want to be like that any more! I want to please the Father, and search out His desires, not man’s and not my own. I want to be able to stand my ground on my convictions without worrying about the other person’s reaction. I want to be able to react to confrontations without completely flying off the handle, because good golly, there is a better way to not be a doormat and get my point across! I pray that when I am faced with a situation where I have to stand my ground, I will react calmly with loving words, or just peacefully walk away. I pray if any of you find yourself in the people pleasing mode, you will realize Who we really should be trying to please, and that the Bible tells us exactly how to do it.