What can man do to me? Psalm 118:6 ESV
The fear of man lays a snare,
but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. Proverbs 29:25 ESV
As Christians we are oft told that we are to strive to please God first, even if that means others may disagree, despise, or defame us. Stand for godly principles. Ignore the naysayers. "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31 ESV) If our faith is measured by these standards, then my faith will be found lacking.
Two days ago at work I had a minor, but obvious disagreement with one of my slight superiors. Not that the person is slight, but their authority over me is marginal, but they do report directly to one of the bigger fish in the SPS pond. After some self-reflection, I realized my response to the discussion had not been as measured as it should have been. I sent her an email apology with an explanation of why my response had not been quite as professional as I had hoped. This was mid morning.
Noon. . . no response.
Midafternoon. . . no response.
After school. . . no response.
Evening. . . no response.
Sitting in my in-box the next morning was a gracious reply which stated that she had not taken anything out of context, no damage was done to the working relationship, and that the discussion we had was about some of the very issues being worked out at other buildings in the district. Then and only then was I able to let go of the feelings of unease over the incident. So what does that have to do with faith?
1. We will make mistakes in dealing with other people. We will be short with people. Argumentative. Disagreeable.
2. Scripture tells us that if anyone has anything against us, it is our duty to reach out to that person and "if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." (Romans 12:18 ESV)
3. As children of God, we are admonished to follow His dictates as laid out in scripture. At that point, it is in God's hands.
I had done this. I goofed. I took the appropriate steps to rectify and reconcile. Had my faith been grounded in the verses from Psalm and Proverbs, I would have not worried about a response, checked email less frequently, and slept soundly. But that was not the case.
I would be a liar if I said that only God's opinion mattered to me. It is embarrassing to admit that the opinion of others do matter to me, in fact perhaps more than God's at times. I do think there are areas of my life where I strive to go against the current of society, but not to the extent I am looked at as odd or different in a "bad" way. What coworkers, bosses, and friends think of my does matter.
Can their opinion affect my eternal standing with God? No. Can their opinion destroy my sonship with my Heavenly Father? No. If I am obedient to God's plan for my life, why then should it matter what John, Michael, or Susan thinks? Because I am human, my faith is weak, and, as the bumper sticker says,
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