Once upon a time, we had a very friendly cat named Samson. He was fluffy and white with blue eyes and a top speed of about one mile an hour, and people loved him. Anytime he moseyed into a room people would scoop him up and say things like, “What a beautiful cat!” And they were right.

For several years, anyway. 

But as Samson got older, all that white fluffy hair started to get less and less fluffy. Poor Samson's slow mosey started to turn more into a mope, and even though we still loved him, he became quite a bit less of a crowd pleaser. In phase one of Samon's life, people said, "What a beautiful cat." But in phase two, that changed. 

In phase two, people would see Samson mope into the room and they would say, "What’s wrong with your cat?"

And then came phase three. In the last few years of Samson's life, he was kind of a wreck. Most of his fluffy white hair fell out completely and his mope turned into more of a stagger. When that poor, bald, scrawny, crooked-tailed cat would stagger into the room, people would look at him, then look at me and say, "Is that a cat?"

But through it all, from fluffy mosey to bald stagger, that old cat seemed to have stumbled onto a secret of happiness that most people never find. As near as I can tell, in all his life, Samson did not care what people thought about him. He just lived his life. And if ever somebody wanted to pet him while he was doing it, that was great.

But people? We, for the most part, are not like Samson. 

When other people tell us that we are beautiful or smart or important, we feel like we’re on top of the world. And when other people tell us that we are ugly or dumb or unimportant, we’re crushed. For some of us, our lives revolve around what other people think about us. And for the rest of us, even if our lives don't revolve around it, it still matters more than a little. And in the long run, that never turns out to be a good thing.

If we aren't careful, instead of being people who can walk boldly into life as the people that God has made us to be, we shrivel up and become the lap dogs of the world. People who spend half of our lives chasing approval and the other half avoiding disapproval.

But, with a little bit of help from a house cat, I have discovered the secret that other people do not get to say who I am. 

I love to be loved and accepted, just like anybody. But I am learning now something that I wish I would have known in other times of my life when I worked so hard to gain other people’s approval. 

I am learning that because Jesus is Jesus, I am loved no matter what. And, because I have put my faith in Jesus, I am accepted forever. And no matter what other people are saying or not saying about me at any given moment, knowing that I am always loved and accepted by God gives me peace.

So if you’re feeling today like my old cat used to look, I want you to know that you are loved. And Jesus came and died for you so you could be accepted. Turn to Him, and experience the peace that comes with knowing that He will never let you go.

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