I ChooseSample

I Choose Purpose Over Popularity

All of us humans were made in the image of God. There is not one thing we can do to make this fact untrue.

We can throw mud on an image, try to blot it out, cover it up, or even vandalize it. Yet no matter what happens to us or what we do, God’s image, the imago Dei, will still be there at our core.

Why do so many of us frantically move through life looking for something to create another image for us? We try building it from our career, belongings, ideologies, experiences, or what others think of us—but they all disappoint.

Why do we feel so afraid when there’s something we need to confess? Why do we try so hard to keep up with the image that we think culture or others have of us?

Why are we tempted to choose popularity over purpose? Do we somehow have ourselves convinced that we can be made in the image of something other than God? It seems that way.

Over the past decade I’ve noticed God working on this in me. He’s been turning me inside out. Everything that’s on the inside, good or bad, has been coming to the outside.

As I raise children, my fear and insecurity finds its way out into the way I parent. But so do the parts of me that are settled in God’s loving-kindness. As I navigate my career, a centered wisdom has surfaced, right alongside an anxious desire to be noticed. I could go on.

I used to fight this process of being turned inside out. I wanted to keep the good flowing, and plug all the leaks where something else found its way out. But more recently I’ve realized the truth of Luke 8:17 is not optional—the inside will eventually come to the outside. And that’s a good thing!

This is true for me, and also for strangers, world leaders, celebrities, grandmothers, and everyone else. So instead of trying to obtain or maintain some kind of popularity, let’s choose to allow God’s image to be revealed in us and for His purpose to come from the inside out. Let’s stop trying to plug all the holes. Trust me, you don’t want to hold in the mess!

Instead, ask God and others to hear you fully, see you fully, and love you as you become more and more like Jesus over a lifetime. That’s God’s purpose for you. Choose it.

Pray: God, I trust You to be careful with me as You form Your image in my life. I’m giving You all of me, everything I’m proud of, and everything I’m not. Amen.

Jason Inman, content developer at Life.Church