Recognition

Recognition is one of those topics that, for whatever reason, just makes me laugh. I don't know precisely why, but there's just something funny about thinking about it. It's like. . . when you think about the thing that you really wanted when you were a little kid and have to laugh because of how silly or cute or naive it was. That's how the topic of recognition strikes me.

There are two obvious sides to it - the giving side and the receiving side - but there's another aspect that's a little less obvious, the working side. I'm probably going to focus mostly on the receiving and the working because those are the parts that make me giggle. And I like giggling. :P

I don't usually look for recognition. I know that I have in the past - often when I'm not walking very closely with the Lord Jesus. It's not generally one of those sins that I have a problem with, wanting to be noticed, looking for approval from others. I don't often feel unappreciated. Maybe it's because I never really have been or maybe it's because I don't really care - I think it's a bit of both. Most of the time, I don't care if people think that I did a good job at something; so why would I care if they tell me that they think I did a good job? Most of the time, the only thing I'm thinking about is wondering if I'm doing an OKAY job at something. I struggle a lot more with the worrying about doing things wrong than the wondering if people are going to recognize me for doing things well.

So it kind of strikes me funny when people get all tangled up in not being appreciated. Or when they get all tangled up in trying to get more recognition for what they have done/are doing. (The working for it side.) It seems to be very common. People want to be popular. They want oodles of friends and for all their friends to look up to them. What kind of sense does that even make??? If ALL of your friends look up to you, who are you going to learn from?

The working for it part is probably the funniest of it all. The things people do because they're concerned about other people disapproving or not taking notice. For one thing, as Christians, we ought to KNOW we're going to be disapproved of - for one reason or another. Either we're going to be salt and light in the world and the world will disapprove; or we're going to be stagnant and God (and those walking with Him) will disapprove. Obviously, there is a difference in how it comes out, but that's pretty much the way it is.

As for the taking notice. . . You know, there are a lot of people who I really doubt WORKED to be noticed. They didn't work on expanding their platform; they didn't work on making themselves "marketable." (I hate that term when applied to Christianity by the way.) They just did what they thought was right, didn't worry about how many people noticed, and GOD gave the increase. Maybe quickly. Maybe slowly. But that wasn't their concern. Their concern wasn't growing their sphere of influence in order to be more influential. Their concern was helping people, was spreading the Gospel.

Now, I get that you can try to grow your influence for the purpose of reaching more people for God. HOWEVER, that is NOT how it comes across a lot of times, and it's very hard to believe a lot of times for one simple reason - the people aren't working nearly as hard to spread the Gospel to the people they already can influence. They're working harder to get more influence than they are to influence the people they already are in touch with. Doesn't that look like wrong priorities? It does to me.

I don't have anyone specific in mind - just some things that I've seen from different people. I've been writing blogs for a long time. I don't ever advertise them. Maybe I should, but I kind of figure that if God wants someone to see what's here - they're GOING to see what's here.