Have the Courage to be Disliked

Like most parents, when our children were little, I used to pray over them daily. My constant prayer was that they would be leaders and not followers, except to follow after Jesus.

It’s so easy to follow these days, especially the wrong people. You see them wherever you turn. On television, computer screens, tablets, cellphones, newspapers - their faces and messages are everywhere you look. They are all about collecting likes and comments, so their messages can be confusing just to get you to agree to something nebulous.

It takes a very brave and confident person to stand alone with a different message and risk not being popular for being right. In doing so, they can appear foolish, rogue, even mad at times. Unless you’re willing to read between the lines and take a good look and listen to all the different messages, you could miss the truth very easily.

Jesus was a renegade. He didn’t have a popular message; He certainly didn’t say what those in power wanted to hear. Yet and still, He stood His ground and spoke truth at every turn, even unto death. Not many had that kind of courage.

Many have fought to ensure our freedoms to learn, work, vote, etc. So often, we take these rights for granted without ever considering the cost someone paid. There aren’t many things that we have left to fight for, yet we often come across as whiny brats, always wanting more and more.

What would you fight for? What are you willing to risk being disliked over? Are you a leader or a follower? Do you ever consider that someone is always watching the example you are setting? Something to think about.