Growing up I remember my dad had a lot of one-liners like: ”Don’t make your mom mad”, ”Do as I say, not as I do”, and the oh so popular, ”I call forever dibs on the last piece of cake.” Of all the nuggets of wisdom that my father sought to pass on to me the one that I can remember best is:

“Failure is trying to please everyone.”

Now I don’t know if he made that up himself, stole it from somebody else, or read it on the bottom of a Snapple bottle cap. Regardless of the origins it has stuck with. As a recovering people please-aholic it has become my mantra since I entered into ministry. It’s a great line that I think sums up a very important truth about life:

If Jesus, who has that whole God-Thing going on for Him, can’t make everybody happy then why in the world do you think that you can?

Think about it. After Jesus taught his first sermon they tried to throw him off a cliff…literally! I’ve taught some bad messages before but I’ve never had anybody try to kill me for it. His family thought that He was crazy, priests called Him Satan (ouch!), His parents lost Him for three days when he was twelve (can anyone say Child Protective Services?), He lost about 3/4 of his original disciples, and one of his closest friends sold Him out and had an angry mob crucify Him (incidentally, that’s why you probably don’t know a lot of people named Judas).

I don’t bring all of this up to depress you or mock God in any way, shape, or form. I say it because it sometimes needs saying. You’re job is not to make everybody happy with you. Jesus was very clear about this: Love God and love other people like you love yourself. That’s pretty much it. Do those two things and you’ll be OK in God’s Book.

There’s just one catch to that last part: love other people like you LOVE YOURSELF. Did you get that? You’ve got to love yourself and then love other people like that. It’s kinda hard to love yourself when you’re always stressed-out because somebody doesn’t like the message that you taught, the program that you put on, or the changes that you’re making.

One of the great philosophers of our time, Bill Murray, said it best in the movie “Meatballs”:

So this week, when you feel like your head is going to explode from all the negativity that you’re getting, take a cue from Jesus, and maybe even Bill Murray, and remember: It just doesn’t matter.

QUESTION: Why do we struggle with trying to make everybody happy all of the time?

–Jeff

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