If I Asked Your Friend about You

            “Mean. Arrogant. Snobby. Fairly good-looking. Doesn’t really like people, but charming/smooth enough to get away with it. Very talented. Stubborn.”

            “Very sweet. Doesn’t cause trouble. Scratch that, INCAPABLE of causing trouble. Makes friends very easily. Doesn’t really take a stand for anything. Good-looking. Well-liked.”

            I thought of these two lists when I thought of two people I know. What did I just do? I described them in a nutshell. Then I had a thought.

            What do people think of me?

Your Reputation

            Take a moment, like I did, to think about that question. What is your reputation? When people see you, what jumps to their mind? Now, I don’t necessarily only mean externals, because that can sometimes hide what’s on the inside. I mean qualities and attributes and characteristics.

            How do you handle bad moods? How do you handle tough times? How do you handle situations that don’t go your way? That’s your strength of character.

            What’s your base personality that you are like when everything is normal? That is the real you.

            How do you react to others? How genuine are you when in groups? 1-on-1? That describes your level of friendliness and how real you are.

            How are you when no one is looking? That is integrity.

            How are you when you are given tasks? That is your reliability.

            You get the point. Everything you do goes into making your reputation. Everything you say. Maybe you’ve never really thought of this beforehand. If that’s true, it’s never too early to start working on it.

Yeah, and Why Does This Matter?

            So what’s up? I’m young, why can’t I live how I want and think about image later? I’m going to do my own thing and people can deal with it.

            If you have this mindset, odds are your reputation isn’t very good.
            But joking aside, it does matter. Your reputation is a reflection of YOU. While it may not be a perfect representation, it is pretty accurate.
            But what if you've really messed up?

            That's the good thing about reputations. They can be fixed. For instance, take Saul in the New Testament. This dude MURDERED Christians. He locked them up. The early Christians feared him.

            But we don’t think of him that way, do we? No, and that’s because he changed. He evangelized the non-Christian (gentile) world. He is the secondary star of the New Testament. He wrote most of it. Paul has a sterling representation among Christians today.

            If a murderer can end up with the image Paul has, you can change things around, too. 

Tiny Steps

            So what goes into a good reputation? As I’ve thought about it, the first thing that comes to mind is honesty. Realness. Consistency. Just being up-front. Do you act differently for different people? Do people know which you they are going to get on a given day?

            Another thing is caring. People, especially the younger generation, just don’t care about life. “Get to the weekend!” is our culture’s cry. But you can be different. You can show you care about those around you. That you care about those who are hurting. That you care about doing the job right. People will love you for this one.

            A third thing is your word choice. This is huge. Do you think before you speak? When you speak, does something actually intelligent come out? When you have something to say, do people perk up because they know you are the one speaking?

            I could go on and on forever about all the little things that go into building or tearing down how people view you. But I can’t, so I just had to choose a few of the important ones.

Summary

            This post all started with the thought “what do people think of Nathan?” What is my reputation? However, no one cares how people view me, but most people do care how people view them. So I went for that.

            Your reputation is you in a way. While not perfect, it is close. It needs to be maintained and built and repaired, just like you.

            “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.” (Proverbs 22:1, ESV)

I'm with Him

            Gunmen burst into the room. They surround everyone. One of them walks up to you with his gun aimed at your head. He asks your friend next to you, “Is this person a Christian?”

            If he/she was honest, what would your friend say?

I’m with Him

            This type of situation has happened several times. Police in other countries ask the Christians they capture for names of other Christians. If that ever happened in this country, would you be turned in?

            If your coworkers were interviewed, would they say you were a Christian? What about your fellow students? What about your friends?

            Who do you identify with? When you speak, who do you represent? When you dress, what do you glorify? When you act, what messages are you sending? If people knew what dominated your thoughts, would they turn you in?

            Jesus makes it clear how many choices we have. Matthew 12:30 states:

            "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad."

            It’s simple, really. We are either living for this earth or for eternity. We are either living for our own desires or the King of Kings.

            Who are you with?

Look in the Mirror

            “I know, I know. I know what you’re saying is right, but to be honest, I just want to flush it down the toilet.”

            This came from a good friend of mine. We had been coworkers for a little bit before he moved to Kentucky.  I had just finished spending a half hour explaining the Gospel to him. He was a nominal Catholic; he knew the Gospel. He had heard the stories. I used this to my advantage to skip to the parts I knew he had trouble with.

            And this was his response. I couldn’t believe it. I was fuming.

            I had just spent a good chunk of MY time to talk to him. I spoke eloquently. I was rocking it. I answered all his questions. I had all the right things to say. I left no stone unturned. I demolished his objections. I was evangelizing. I was doing everything right.

            I, I, I. Me, me, me. And I wasn’t good enough. I couldn’t touch my friend’s heart.

            I learned a lesson that day. I can’t change a thing.

If You Run into a Wall

            Have you ever tried so hard to do something? To the point where it became your life at that moment? You devoted every thought and every resource and everything else you had at it. And then… nothing happened?

            That’s how it was during those times with my friend. I did this. I did that. I threw everything at him. But there was one problem.

            I’m just me.

            I learned a bitter lesson that culminated with that day. I can’t change anything in this world. My power (ha!) is extremely limited outside of my own mind. I can have goals and visions, plans and skills. But it doesn’t matter because, by myself, I can do very little.

Grab a Ladder

            Fortunately for sad little me, I’m not left to my own abilities (or lack-of). Let’s look at what you and I can do when we go outside of ourselves for help.

Philippians 4:13 states:

             “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

            All things? Really? God can’t be serious. Oh, but He is. Here’s another one for you. Matthew 19:26 states:

           “But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’”

            The Bible makes it clear that we can’t do anything by ourselves. Why? Well, just look in the mirror! You and I can’t control very much. Barack Obama can’t control very much. Vladimir Putin can’t control very much.

            But God isn’t limited by any physical, mental, or spiritual container. He’s not constrained by a lack of knowledge or man-power. He’s not held back by stupidity or arrogance.

            So go ahead, call on Him. You can’t be stopped because if God is with you there is nothing on this earth that can stop you. Scratch that, there’s nothing in this universe that can stop you. Your Maker is also the maker of every atom. He’s in absolute control.

            Or you can rely on your own abilities. Your pick.