The Poster Child:

Deciphering How the World Thinks- Part 1:

The observation:

I saw a very moving movie last night, "the Great Debaters." There was a ghastly debate: for or against "civil disobedience." The "for" team presented Henry Thoreau's view (a man who was in support of civil disobedience, i.e. individual resistance to civil government if it happens to be unjust). His views would eventually give slaves their freedom by influencing major movers and shakers such as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Ghandi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. But the "against" team insisted that Thoreau was a self-righteous man, and that he was only just a "majority of one." How can the majority be one person? How can we accept the views of just one person as the majority? he asked.

Here, I will only focus on the question at hand (not the debate above). Why does the world choose to make one person out of 6, 692,030,277 people our "majority of one"? By whose standards do we live? Whose report can we bet our lives on? Why does the world choose the standards of mere men?

The Poster Child:

The world wants you to be a poster child, an ideal situation. A prototype. The typical. There is this idea of who the world wants you to become. The world wants you to look, feel, and react in a certain way. The Poster Child is only the view of a "majority of one." But there's a more powerful majority...

The Truth:

There is no ideal human being. Your name has been inscribed on the palm of God's hand, just like the person sitting or standing right beside you (Isaiah 49:16). Your path on earth should not be determined by what the world wants you to be. You are as diversified as you can be. You're special. Unique. Not a clone of someone else. Hollywood is the majority of one. Yes, you should strive to be a great person, but make sure you're not swamped by the views of what the world considers "greatness." Psalm 139 speaks of being unique, that God knew you even before you were born. So why stress yourself to be an image that the world has created for you? Ask God to guide you in your own unique path.

You are great when you accomplish all that God created you to do. Not because you're the "Poster Child" for the world's viewing pleasure.

*"Poster child* is just a connotation I came up with, not a familiar term--it postulates the world's idea of an ideal human being. Meanwhile, God has created the most beautifully unique 6, 692,030,277 people on earth such that everyone will exude greatness if they can only understand what they were created for.

Would you rather go with being a POSTER CHILD or do you want to seek God's unique path for your life?

Have fun with the SUPER BOWL!!! Yayyy for New Orleans......or Indiana...lol. I don't know which team to pick!!! And the super bowl ads are so funny this year. Remember not to be the ideal poster child, but the person who God has created you to be.

Photo by Lilou