Yesterday we mentioned slavery in the sense that Black Lives Matter.
Yet there is another type of slavery, one which we all probably have had to deal with and that is acceptance.
The truth is that most human beings STRUGGLE with self-worth & particularly self-image and acceptance some time in their life.
When physical beauty, intelligence, athletic ability, or talent is the basis for self-esteem, the average person can have feelings of inferiority, emptiness, longing, and worthlessness
No matter what colour they are, how beautiful, successful, what neighbourhood they live in, their background, or who they hang out with they struggle with self-worth and acceptance.
I read some time ago about the tragedy of a teenager struggling with acceptance and then listening to a record suggesting suicide was the answer and sadly doing exactly that.
And don’t think that this whole thing stops when you become an adult either. It just takes a different form: what job you have, club or association you belong to, the car you drive, etc.
We become a slave to craving to be accepted. There are two ways in which we deal with significance or worth. We either embrace it or rebel against it.
Embrace
Your worth is based on what you do and what other people say. And that’s the way we will be if we embrace the world’s idea of worth and acceptance. We will always be struggling to keep up and change to fit in. The Bible has an answer. It tells us Christ wants us to model ourselves on Him.
Rebel
The other way though of dealing with it is not to embrace but to REBEL AGAINST IT – I will fight against everything you say gives me worth, and I don’t need your acceptance. It sounds very independent, very individualistic. I am a rock. I am an Island. We can say we don’t want people labelling us, and we don’t want people trying to measure our worth, and that’s fine. Yet people who say they don’t need anyone – that they just don’t need anyone’s acceptance – they are wrong. It’s a basic need that we all share.
On Monday we will look at this further and how I believe you can feel significant and accepted. In the meantime think back on a time you wanted to be accepted. What did you do to achieve that? Did it work? In hindsight what would you do differently?
The Bible has an answer. It tells us Christ wants us to model ourselves on Him.
Stay safe and blessed.