What do you want from me?

I am naturally a people-pleaser, and I've always been one, from what I've been told. It makes life hard and it's not what God wants from me or for me, so I'm working on it. ("Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? ... If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ." Gal. 1:10) Though I am improving, slowly, it still really hurt my feelings the other day when two co-workers became very upset with the way I handled a situation. One of them half-yelled that I should stop being so agreeable. What?! That's probably not what you imagined, right? You probably figured that I'd done something bad or was somehow out of line. No, what made them angry was my attitude of accepting a situation that wasn't the best and that wasn't what I'd been promised.

The world is so double-minded regarding Christians. There's a part of them that wants us to be who we say we are, to live up to the Word. On the other hand, there's a part of them that is eager to see us fail. Our standards make them uncomfortable, and when we fail, they feel as if we're now 'on their level'. They're not sure what they want us to do, but they suspect that they want our conformity. Sometimes, I do want to lower my standards just so people will know for sure that I'm NOT different because I look down on them! No, I'm different because I'm looking up. As tough as it is, we can't change who we are just to make people feel better about themselves (Rom. 12:2).

Unfortunately, it's not just the world that's double-minded. The Bible has nothing good to say about people of two minds (Matt. 5:37, Psalm 119:113, James 1:8, James 4:8) and speaks often about the necessity of devoting ourselves to Christ alone. That means that people-pleasing is not okay. The fact that I was so hurt when my co-workers disapproved of my doing what I saw as godly is not a good sign. I should instead be proud that the worst they can say of me (at least so far!) is that's I'm too agreeable!