Secret Service – Approval Addiction
I am really excited about our new series at CCV. While I was in the Air Force I got to work with the Secret Service on just one evening during President Clinton’s re-election campaign. They didn’t let us anywhere near the President, it was more like my unit was securing the Secret Service and the Secret Service secured Air Force One and the President. One thing that I noticed was that they never intentionally drew attention to themselves. They always maintained enough of a visible presence to accomplish their mission while remaining in the background.
Matthew 6:1 tells us, “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”
Sometimes we just want people to notice us. Even when what we do appears to be the right thing, we later notice that our actions were fueled by unhealthy motivations. If we’re going to truly grow as Christians then we cannot run on the fuel of approval seeking. A fully devoted Christian no longer tries to control what everybody thinks of them.
We started this week by talking about Secret Generosity. Jesus tells us, “When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
As Christ followers, when we do some form of ministry, serve as a volunteer, or some act of service, or giving (and it’s noticed), it can feel good. We like being noticed and that is not always a bad thing. When I’m encouraged by someone that is a good thing right? The problem begins to creep up on us when we start finding ourselves addicted to that kind of attention from others. Our true reward starts coming from the feeling of being approved of not by God, but by others. Approval addiction keeps you coming back for more – and it keeps us working harder and harder, and we never are really satisfied by the attention. Not satisfied because we are only working harder to get noticed and not from any pure motives of generosity.
So at CCV our challenge this week is to do an anonymous act of generosity each day this week and notice how not drawing attention to our selves changes us and impacts others. After the week is over I look forward to the stories I’ll here and next Sunday we will have a new seven day challenge as we continue in Secret Service.
