Celebrity
If people want to become celebrities, they devote themselves to what they will look like—the most handsome or most beautiful person on the planet—whether they want to be dancers, singers, or et cetera.
The worst scenario for becoming a celebrity may be that people always have to compete against other celebrities to determine who is best.
Popularity
Everyone wants to be loved and recognised among communities. Otherwise, people could be lonely for the rest of their lives. They naturally have a desire to do life with one other. I just do not mean doing life together with one’s partner but with everyone. This is how God has designed us.
However, some people get caught up on finding identity in communities because they have a desire to be popular. For example, when I was in middle school, Murrays Bay Intermediate, I got jealous of a couple of people.
My cousin was there and he was crowded with other students, probably because of the Pokemon portable heater. So, I got my one out of my backpack and carried it into our class. Unfortunately, nobody came up to me.
Another instance was when a girl was chasing a boy to put hair gel on. After watching this, I put a chair in front of the whiteboard, pretending to read writings on it, with high hope that a girl would put some hair gel onto my hair.
Nevertheless, she did not, probably because she liked that boy as a person.
Standards
To be accepted in the world, all of us have to reach certain standards and prove that we are worthy. This is a natural concept.
I wanted to attend a Bible College and the requirement for it was getting a level four qualification for English for Academic Purposes. Hence, I got it and applied for Carey Baptist College. I finished New Zealand Diploma in Christian Studies and am doing Bachelor of Applied Theology.
Another example is when I could not get into any high school other than Long Bay College as it provides an entrance exam. I am not good at taking exams at all because of the limited time.
Fortunately, I was able to get into Long Bay College as it didn’t provide an entrance exam.
Religion
A long time ago, I thought religion is not important. All that I cared about is to have fun and be a good person for the rest of my life.
Therefore, I volunteered heaps in my first church, Life Changers, such as setting the church equipment up from early morning and becoming a greeting person of the church. II also imitated what people did at the church, such as putting my hands up when worshipping.
Volunteering in the church and imitation of the people were my ways to please them. After a while, I gave imitation up but enjoyed volunteering and pleasing people with it. This happened until I became a follower of Jesus Christ and we experienced the true joy of volunteering is pleasing Him through faith and works.
When we have faith in Jesus, we automatically become a new creation in Him because of His redemption (2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 17). No matter who we are, we are fearfully and wonderfully made by God as His beloved children.
Christianity
We do not have to do anything to please Jesus. He did not choose very qualified people for His glory. He chose and called imperfect and inexperienced people to follow Him (Matthew chapter 4, verses 18-22).
I am an imperfect and inexperienced person as I have cerebral palsy and have not known anything about Jesus until I had an encounter with God through His Spirit.
However, we need to put faith in Jesus, in order to please Him.
We can do this by surrendering ourselves. And it is through faith we are supposed to do good works. James chapter 2, verse 17 declares, “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
After surrendering myself onto Him, the Spirit has been prompting me to become a Christian writer. Without the Spirit, I literally cannot do Christian writing until this far.
To be specific, I have been writing devotionals for others for over five years and writing articles for Christian Today over six months now. What has been amazing to me is that the Spirit has often prompted me to write different devotionals if I wrote about the same Bible passage.
I always thought I have to quit writing devotionals sometime because I might have nothing to write if it comes to the same passages. Although I trust in the Holy Spirit and am willing to continue on writing devotionals as Christian writing is my passion, I had to quit writing devotionals and move on to writing articles.
Unfortunately, I cannot write devotionals and articles while I am studying at Bible College.
Overall, let us hold firm to our identities in Christ Jesus as we are children of God through faith in Him (John chapter 1, verses 12-13). Let us also be popular and one of the celebrities of God on His perspective, that is ambassadors in Jesus Christ (Matthew chapter 5, verses 13-16).