Allowing the need for approval to dominate you will cause you to miss God’s gifts and purpose for your life. Trying to please everyone is a trap and that we need to avoid falling into it. Sometimes we create high and unrealistic expectations for ourselves.

In the book of Genesis, God created the heavens and the earth and all living creatures.  What God has made is good.  Each of us, created in God's image is unique.  God loves us for who we are - not for what others think we should be.

God’s desire is not to condemn us but to gradually draw us into a personal relationship with him.. In today’s Gospel we meet Zacchaeus. Since Zacchaeus was of short stature, he climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus as He passed by. Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus but it was Jesus who approaches Zacchaeus instead of Zacchaeus coming to Jesus. Jesus tells Zacchaeus he will stay at his house. Those around know Zacchaeus was a tax collector and has a reputation of being a sinner. Zacchaeus tells Jesus “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold” (Luke 19:8).

Zacchaeus was willing to not be like other tax collectors, who took advantage of others, but instead was going to be generous with his goods and treat people fairly. Jesus’ response to Zacchaeus’ statement is, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:9-10).

Sometimes, like Zacchaeus, we may have to climb away or step back from the crowd to get a closer look at our life circumstances. So many people spend so much time trying to keep everyone happy, that they remain blind to the effect this has on their hearts.  People pleasing ultimately creates an idol of people’s approval of yourself.  Over time, we begin to think that our greatest need is not God but people’s approval.

Pleasing those we love is rewarding, but pleasing God is a higher calling and much more fulfilling. We are headed for trouble when our desire to please people and gain their approval becomes as important as pleasing God and sensing his approval.

As sinful people, we are constantly battling with the need for approval and the wrong thinking that more good deeds equal more love. But at the cross, Jesus demonstrated the price he paid because he loved us. We did not need to do anything for this love.

A vital truth to combat this fear is: Not everyone will love me, but the One who matters will never stop loving me. God’s love for us does not ebb and flow; it does not waver; it does not increase or decrease; it is consistent; there’s no need to fear rejection.

Once we are secure in our relationship with God, and understand the implications of that relationship, we will seek to know how we can please him. How will we respond to the instructions left for us by Jesus? Will we do whatever it is He requires of us or will we balk at His commands? Will we make radical changes, if needed, or will we continue to live our lives the same as always? Will we continue to try to please others or will be try to please God?
 
 
Reflection Questions

• What obstacles do you encounter that try to keep you from Jesus?  

• What do you need to rise above, like Zacchaeus, in order to see Jesus clearly?
• Do you become a different person around certain groups of people?
• Do you find it hard to let go of hurtful things others have said to you?

OVERWHELMED!

 

Gospel                                                                                               LK 20:27-38
Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection,
came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying,
"Teacher, Moses wrote for us,
If someone's brother dies leaving a wife but no child,
his brother must take the wife
and raise up descendants for his brother.
Now there were seven brothers;
the first married a woman but died childless.
Then the second and the third married her,
and likewise all the seven died childless.
Finally the woman also died.
Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be?
For all seven had been married to her."
Jesus said to them,
"The children of this age marry and remarry;
but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age
and to the resurrection of the dead
neither marry nor are given in marriage.
They can no longer die,
for they are like angels;
and they are the children of God
because they are the ones who will rise.
That the dead will rise
even Moses made known in the passage about the bush,
when he called out 'Lord, '
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;
and he is not God of the dead, but of the living,
for to him all are alive."

 

How easy it is for people to waste time and energy in spurious debates that neither advance the cause of the Gospel nor shed any light on real-life issues. Yet they can become a distraction from our real tasks as Christians. Like the Sadducees in today’s gospel reading we can easily find ourselves caught up in endless discussions on minor points without realizing we are wasting precious time and perhaps creating needless division.

 

When we are driven to distraction, how do we hear God?