Do you desire a good reputation? Do you want to stand out among the crowd? Would you like people to say what a good person you are? Are you willing to stand out? Are you willing to put in the effort? Are you willing to follow Jesus?
Most of us want people to say good things about us. We want people to look up to us. We want people to say we are a good example for others to follow. Unfortunately, not all of us are willing to give up the faulty views of the world.
We often follow the crowd. We go along with what is popular. We go to the popular restaurants. We go to the popular stores. We watch the popular television shows. We follow the popular sports teams. We do what allows us to fit in.
We take on the popular views. Perhaps the views of our friends. Perhaps the views of our family. We may even take on the views we see in the news or social media. Doing this allows us to fit in with a peer group we long to be with.
Where does that get us? It makes us one of the crowd. We become as bland as everyone around us. We become part of the herd. We are just another person moseying down the same path as everyone else. We don’t stand out. We don’t obtain the good reputation we desire. We live a vanilla life.
To stand out among others, to gain a good reputation, we must be different. We must become blameless. We must become pure. We must break away from the corruption that is all around us. In order to shine as we were meant to, we must follow a different path. We must follow the example of Jesus.
All our complaining, arguing, and disgruntlement simply makes us part of the world. To stand out, we must give thanks to God for everything we have, for all our experiences, for His wonderful blessings. To be an attractive person who others want to follow, we must be better than the world we live in. We must shine like a star.
I pray we all desire a good reputation. I pray we want to stand out from the crowd. I pray each of us decides to follow God and become a shining star. Give thanks to God. Show others what it means to follow Jesus. Be a shining star. Hold firmly to God’s Word.
Philippians 2:14-16a Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.
Marty Pressey 