Who Defines You?

They loved human praise more than praise from God.

—John 12:43

I have a serious thing for Amazon Prime and the “Buy Now with 1-Click” option—it’s so easy. When our son Mac was a baby, I noticed a new thing Amazon started doing. After my package arrived, they would send an email asking me to rate my experience. The first time this happened, I had ordered diapers. I thought, Rate my experience? I didn’t go to Paris, or a museum, or the opera. I didn’t even read a book or eat at a restaurant. I ordered diapers and they came. That’s not an experience. That’s not something you rate.

But in the world we live in today, it is. Everything is ratable, up for review, open for critique. How many stars, how many likes, how many page views?

This is a seductive game. Letting yourself be defined by anything other than the good God who created you on purpose and for a purpose is meaningless—and dangerous. When you live for the opinions of a crowd, it’s all but impossible to stay on course with the calling you’ve been given. Because God’s call on your life doesn’t usually have much in common with the parameters of success as our world defines it.