Can't Please Everyone

I was going to write something completely different, but was reading the Bible earlier (it's a good book, I've heard good things) and was reading a section in Matthew in which Jesus is talking about John the Baptist.

Matthew 11:18-19 ~ "For John didn’t spend his time eating and drinking, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man, [Jesus] on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ But wisdom is shown to be right by its results.”

How true it is. If you do one thing, people get mad, if you do the opposite, people get mad. I learned this so early on doing sound at church. Turn it up, people tell you it's too loud. Turn it down, people tell you it's not loud enough. No matter what, you can't please everyone. Someone will find fault in what you do.

So how do you decide? Jesus says it right there. Wisdom is shown to be right by it's results. In the sound thing, I always err on being too loud. Why? Too quiet and people don't hear the Word of God and don't sing. Too loud, people sing really loud and everyone hears what the pastor/speaker is trying to say. Now, I don't go to extremes and try to make eardrums hurt, but I go with which has the most desirable results.

I think there are a lot of people who have trouble trying to please everyone because they take their eyes of the goal (the results) and instead start focusing on the people around them. Our eyes have to always be on the goal. Maybe the goal needs to be more clearly defined so we can know where to go next, but we need to know what the focus should be and stay on course towards it.

After all, I work with teenagers. If my only concern was making them happy, we'd probably end up playing Wii all night and not talking about Jesus and how He wants us to live at all. But that's not my goal. That's not the results I want. I have very specific things I want students to know by the time they graduate, we have purposes that we follow and are trying to instill in all our students (Worshipping, Allying, Teaching, Equipping, Reaching). Stick to your goals, even if the path to them sometimes may change a bit, but stick to your goals, not pleasing those around you.

I Corinthians 9:25-26 ~ All those who compete in the games use self-control so they can win a crown. That crown is an earthly thing that lasts only a short time, but our crown will never be destroyed. So I do not run without a goal. I fight like a boxer who is hitting something—not just the air.

T