A right perspective.
We may believe that the idea of ‘not getting above your station’ sounds like something from a – thankfully forgotten – era, yet whatever the truth of how society is divided, the issue of what other people think still dominates.
Research on the damaging effects of social media indicates that presenting our ‘best selves’ both visually and emotionally is a pressure that many, not least on young people, find too hard to bear. Things have gone beyond simple peer-pressure to obsessing about what others think.
Yet these pressures aren’t restricted to social media: “What will the neighbours think” has affected people’s behaviour for as long as humanity has been in society!
Such concerns can help prevent damaging behaviour and keep us from extremes. Yet they can lock us into conforming to sinful societal norms.
It is these damaging trends that we heard the Lord Jesus referring to last Sunday evening from Matthew Ch 10, as he explained to His disciples what being ‘labourers in His Harvest field’ would involve.
His solution was humbling and direct:
“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (Matt 10:28-30)
When people are big and God is small in our thinking, the world and our lives feel very broken. When God is big and people are small, the broken world is seen in its proper context as full of people who need a Saviour.
Spencer Shaw