Let’s not be slaves to popularity

We spend significant time rating others and ingesting their judgment of us through social media. With a single click on our photo we know if the cake was cooked perfectly enough, the vacation cool enough, the stance on any societal issue right enough… or woke enough. In today’s marketplace, everyone has an opinion on everything – and the technology to broadcast it.

But, maybe this measurement system is broken; because maybe, being liked and high approval ratings isn’t the almighty goal? Shouldn’t we instead use our lives to create positive influence, and impact, and elevate the world for good, starting with “the Man in the Mirror”?

Instead we are worrying and consumed with being liked, or getting the “heart” rather than the “thumbs up.”

To remind myself of this truth, my office desk is covered with silly little things (notes, trinkets, inside jokes) people who know me and love me have given me these “little” things. They remind me of experiences, events, and laughs we have shared. The journey we have had together.
I also always try and grow something, sometimes from a seed, sometimes as a small seedling of some kind (though I usually fail in growing most things) this is to remind me that I along with all those I know, are always growing and changing. I also have some things that are remnants of a past occupations or pastimes.
I also usually have some quotes tacked up somewhere from leaders and mentors that have impacted me. I avoid anything overtly political or religious, although as any thinking adult I have strong convictions about those things. To most, my desk looks like a hodgepodge of junk, and I guess it is. My website (Doulostheo.com) and my posts on social media are my minds outlet to some degree beyond this desk of course but I don’t seek approval from them.

Which brings me to the point I want to make. It seems that I am a little odd when it comes to the people that influence me. Most are not, and were not “liked” or approved of in their time. One of them is a man who was wildly unpopular when he died. Of course he is very popular now, but I didn’t know just how unpopular this man was in his time until just the other day when I read about it in a newsletter I receive daily. I was 8yrs old when he died and more worried about learning to throw a curve ball then.

Here is just how unpopular he was:

In 1968, a country that could agree on very little, agreed on their dislike of this person and the irrelevance of his movement. After more than a decade of speaking, marching, writing and mobilizing, many believed his time passed and his ideas were ineffective. The year he died, this man had a 75% disapproval rating.

His call to end racial injustices through non-violent protests wasn’t aggressive enough for many who wanted more change faster. At the same time, his efforts were far too aggressive for others who either didn’t want to see change or didn’t view racism as their problem.

His repeated calls on government, corporations, and individuals to recognize and redeem the agonizing plight of those in poverty was deemed radical. In the wealthiest country in the world, he had a dream of elevating the lives of every citizen within that country and becoming even more generous with those struggling in other countries.

(It doesn’t matter that Martin Luther King, Jr. had low approval ratings at that time, and that your photo didn’t get many likes today.)

His call for non-military solutions to global conflicts as a pathway toward collective peace was considered idyllic. He argued adamantly against the war in Vietnam, which was considered a necessary and winnable war at the time.

And yet, today, no one wonders if Martin Luther King, Jr. was right.

No serious person debates whether non-violent protesting can indeed lead to transformational change. No one cares that his approval ratings were low. Nearly 75% of citizens disapproved of his stance against violence, poverty, war, racism, and hatred.

More than 50 years after his murder, we have far more insight into the clarity of his thoughts, wisdom of his words and transformational power of his life. We also have ever greater clarity on the opportunity still present to work and realize the many dreams he shared while living.

Measuring current followers, likes, shares, opinion polls and approval ratings is one way to see how we’re doing, but like any current fame, it is  fleeting and like “a puff of smoke.”

I say we should shift our focus away from attaining fleeting popularity and instead towards being lastingly impactful. The goal of our lives is not status or ease, but leading, serving, elevating and inspiring in such a manner that other lives are better because we were part of it.

In one of his final speeches King spoke to a junior high school in Philadelphia. He challenged the young people to recognize the beauty and dignity of their lives regardless of the work they would do. And he left them with inspiration that might benefit us today: “Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can’t be a sun, be a star. For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.”

Most of my other heroes were not popular in the time either: Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi, Theologian Jonathan Edwards, Martin Luther.  In fact, the most unpopular person of his time was our Saviour. Not event his closest friends wanted to say they knew him when he was murdered. He is still wildly unpopular and yet wildly popular 2000 yrs. later. In fact, no one is indifferent when pressed on their opinion of Jesus.

Let’s strive to be someone that impacts lives and people are not indifferent about.

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