Seeking approval

"You may brag about yourself, but the only approval that counts is the Lord's approval."

2 Corinthians 10:18 CEVDCUS06

Atta boy! Well done! Good job! We long for approval. I want to hear "well done".  Some days I feel like that is already an impossibility - that I've messed up so badly that there is no way the Lord will say those words to me. I feel like a runner who stumbles badly in the middle of a race and falls to the ground. The rest of the field finishes and I am still rounding the last turn, bloody, painfully slow, and obviously limping.  The TV crew is interviewing the winner,  draped in his national flag, and I am that out of focus last runner in the background finally crossing the line. No reporters or fans are waiting to congratulate me, no one holds out a bottle of water or even a paper flag to wave. No one says "nice race". It wasn't nice, it was ugly, brutal, embarrassing. There are only two things to say about it : I ran, and I finished.

Will I hear "well done"? If it were my child in the race coming in last would I say  "Good job, I am proud of you. You didn't quit."? I would.

" if you, being evil, give good things to your children, how much more the Father... "

I will one day cross the finish line and I hope, I expect that my Father will say "you did good. I love you and I'm proud of you." And so, I run...