Care, But Don't Please

C.J. Mahaney asked Randy Alcorn, "What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your leadership?" His answer ties in well with the book I have been quoting from recently (When People Are Big and God Is Small) and is clearly not just good advice for leaders:

No one said it in exactly this way, but several men have said what helped me come to this way of thinking: Care about people but don’t live to please them. If you do, you’ll fail your Lord and you’ll fail people too.

As a young pastor I cared too much what people thought. The best cure for this was 20 years ago when I was repeatedly arrested and went to jail for peaceful nonviolent civil disobedience at abortion clinics. I did it because I believed God wanted me to stand up for unborn children. But it was extremely unpopular, to say the least, in Oregon, and even many Christians, including some of our church folk, disapproved. I learned to accept that. We live out our lives before the Audience of One. In the end, his approval is the one that matters. If our goal is to hear others say “Well done,” we won’t do what we need to do to hear him say it.