How (Not) to Save the World: The Truth About Revealing God’s Love to the People Right Next to Youናሙና

How (Not) to Save the World: Live to Please People

When my mom reached her 50s, she started her second act. She had been involved in street ministry for decades with our family’s outreach and had a voice of tender authority with the people she served. Yet she wrestled with whether God was now calling her to something new. What would it mean for her, at this stage of her life, to follow a new direction that God had for her? Was it too late to make a change? Did she have the courage to step into a new calling?

I tried to hear through her fears and investigate what was stirring in her heart to venture out toward. Finally she admitted, with a sigh of relief, “I want to be a preschool teacher.” My mom had been discouraged by her fears of what people would say, and how it would look to try to do something new in this season of her life.

We have all felt at times that we don’t fit the requirements to do the things God is calling us to do. We disqualify ourselves from positions or roles based on other people’s standards, opinions, or seeming expectations. How can we live for Jesus and show the world Jesus if we are always trying to please the world Jesus came to save? Living to please people is how (not) to save the world. 

If we are slaves to what people are saying, then we can’t be obedient to what God is saying. We cannot take the step of faith God is calling us to take while making everybody else happy with our every move. If you live to please people, and not to please God, you will never step into the full purpose God has for your life. People will not know Jesus if we keep living to please the people Jesus came to save.

My mom has now been a preschool teacher for a couple of years. Living in this new era of her life, she told me, “This is what I’m supposed to be doing. I know this is where I’m supposed to be.” My friend, forget the status quo. Tear up the invisible timeline for what you are supposed to do and when you are supposed to do it. Take the limits off of yourself. Take the limits off of God. There is something different God wants to do in us and through us in every season of our lives. Don’t rush it. Don’t skip it. In this moment you’re living right now, God has something specific for you to grab hold of and something specific for you to give.

Respond

What has discouraged you from following the passion and calling that God has for you?

What is at risk if we live to follow culture, or live to please people instead of God?

What is something you feel God calling you to that you can say yes to today?