The crowd is hungry, hungry for nourishment, hungry for contentment, hungry for a moment’s peace, hungry for freedom, hungry for a leader, hungry for God’s presence. The crowd is always hungry. They want to be fed, to be led, and to be reassured that they are safe and will be cared for. They have been hoping for this for all their lives. And every time they were disappointed, their expectation of finding what they hoped for faded, and they began to hope less and less.

The expectations you carry can be life-limiting, rather than life-giving.

You can spend your days meeting, and exceeding, the expectations of others and the internalized expectations you place on yourself, but to what end? So that no one would reject you? So that you would be well regarded and well-remembered? Would that make you whole and content?

And would you be driven to go to great lengths to fill the emptiness that comes from chasing after approval, approval that is only conditional, only given once you’ve struggled for it – the kind of approval that can never heal you the way a parent or caregiver’s love can? How far would you go? Would you risk your health – your physical health, your mental health, for approval?

A poet of great conviction penned these words, reflecting on the strength of Atlas, “I will not hold up the sky. I will honor my needs. I will not push through. My ‘no’ shatters chains”[1] – chains of internalized expectation, of fear of rejection from others, of holding up the world in order to give hope to others. These chains of obligation do not give life; they bind us in places of pain and silent obedience, which we disguise as stoic honor and heroic duty.

Watching the Olympics this past week has reminded me of something that happened in the last Olympics. It was the decision Simone Biles made, to say no to the endless race for approval. She had worked so hard, and there was no guarantee she would ever see a world stage as prominent and widely watched as the Olympics. There was no promise that she wouldn’t get injured, or out-competed, between then and now. And I remember the reaction from many to her decision then – that she is accepted, that she is still the greatest gymnast of this generation, and that apart from her accomplishments, she is enough. It was rare to hear such affirmation then.

I had to dig up her response to it, which conveyed something, I believe, we can relate to. She wrote: “the outpouring love & support I’ve received has made me realize I’m more than my accomplishments and gymnastics which I never truly believed before. 🤍”[2]

I would love to suggest that it wasn’t only her matchless talent and training which bore her return to the world stage at the Olympics this summer. I would like to imagine that a healed heart, one that knows it is more than its value to others, could power her drive and sacrifice.

That’s the alternative to seeking after the approval of others. That’s what we are invited to do, to find contentment in our hearts and purpose for our lives. And we may even be remembered as faithful saints and inspiring witnesses, because we abandon the expectations of our fathers and mothers, the traditions of our elders. And we set foot down a new path, one built not by even our own expectations, but walked by the Son of God, who preached to all who might hear, “The work of God is that you believe.”

That liberation from striving is spiritual food for all of us. It heals and nourishes; it restores and refreshes. Contentment, inner peace, personal freedom, God’s own presence: they can be found now, and today – not after winning a medal, or spending a lifetime in pursuit of excellence. They can be discovered and obtained freely and without cost. The world need not be perfect for it to be filled with God’s grace. Your life doesn’t need to be spotless for you to be loved. Your home doesn’t have to be orderly to let Christ in the door. Your reputation doesn’t have to be polished and shining, period.

You can find God already within you, if you stop looking around, stop comparing yourself to others or to your youthful ambitions, stop counting your disappointments, stop scrambling to change your life, change your world, change your retirement, change your legacy, change your activities and pursuits, change your relationships, change yourself.

You can find God within you, now, if you just close your eyes and know, in your heart, that you, too, are more than your accomplishments; you are more than your worth to others. You do not need to do the work of God. You do not need to do anything, but rely on grace, unearned, and unreimbursed.

You don’t need to earn your keep or pull your own weight. You are already a welcome and unbegrudged guest of the One who sent down bread from heaven, the Bread of Life, the Son of God, merely so that you might be fed and filled and led and cared for and freed from your own doubts and misgivings, to live and to live abundantly.

So will you take and eat? Will you be fed? Will you allow yourself to be not enough, just as you are, and to believe that God won’t hold it against you? 

I pray you will.

And I invite your response.

Amen.  

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[1] Jessica Grant-Domond, “Atlas,” https://www.jessicagrantdomond.com/

[2] Simon Biles, posted on Twitter, July 28, 2021.