How do you know it works? Is this worth it? Are you worth it? What value do you have and how many followers do you have? Is it worth my time, money, and energy?
Ever ask yourself these questions? Does anyone ever ask you these questions? Apparently someone asked PUMA these questions and they felt compelled to answer with this bite size note on the pair of shoes I just got:
Clearly – people wear it. No one person in particular, just the people that you imagine they are talking about which are the same people that you often dream to be more like. Famous people, people dressed to the nines, athletes and perfect body people. Also those who aren’t bound by “the grind”. So whatever the “it” is that you desire, Puma knows that they have “it” and “it” is working. These imaginary people validate the “it” I just bought.
This Christmas I am wondering, what or who am I pointing to for my validation? Where are you finding your validation?
If you are at all like me a lot of what I spend my time, money, energy chasing in hopes for validation are truly a figment of my imagination. Success, fame, followers, notoriety, and “one-better-than-that-guy”. Sounds like something but is truly imaginary. No substance there, no final product or finish line.
Christ was born in a barn, laid in a trough full of half eaten hay. Not long after his birth to unmarried parents his family found themselves as refugees in Egypt only to enter illegally as immigrants into a land that was not their own. Where was Christ’s validation? What could he point to? Who could he point to? He had nothing! (Cue imaginative constructions of success or possession…oh, he didn’t do that either.)
Christ abided in his validation. He did not chase it.
He abided in God’s presence.
LUKE 2:48-49 And when his parents saw him they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress. And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I mus be in my Father’s house?”
He abided in God’s blessing.
MATTHEW 3:16-17 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
I am sure there were times, Christ in his humanity felt the need to validate his presence, worth, or value through the standards or imaginations of man. Yet he chose to not chase an empty imaginary goal but to abide in the tangible presence of God our Father.
In your last few shopping days, preparation days and travel hours I challenge all of us to reevaluate where our validation comes from. May our conscience decisions to abide in God’s presence and blessing that came to us in Christ strike a different chord in the hearts of the world this season. May they see our peace, works, faithfulness and love and be able to say, “I’ve seen how they’ve abided in God, so, we know He works.”
Uncomfortable Middle 