I’m Just Saying

THE APPROVAL SYNDROME

Approval (endorsement, consent, support, agreement, authorization, appreciation, say-so) is the green light that men seek in order to be able to become and/or to do. The only challenge with this is that this has become consent and endorsement that is sought man-to-man, and it has led to absolute chaos on earth because it is not as it is in Heaven.

The nucleus of a society is the family unit: the individual, the spouse, their child or children. In Afrika and some other parts of the world, it also includes the extended family (grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins). That’s where individuals are socialized, where they learn in their most intimate spaces who they are, how to operate in society, how to stand.

It is also where they practice the values that they stand for and prepare to be exposed to the wider society, and where they return to in order to heal and regroup or rejuvenate after encounters with the society outside of their home.

The training and reinforcement that they receive in these nuclei, determines who they will identify with outside of them, who they will be drawn to, repelled by, admire, reject and how they will interact with and navigate their wider world. It also defines how they influence and impact their environment.

This has been an on-going reality since Adam and Eve in the Garden. In their case, their All – Inclusive reference was The Father, before the voice of the deceiver entered in. After that, everything went haywire and darkness really took off running with its agenda to corrupt and deceive and destroy. One critical aspect of relationship that darkness stole was Approval.

Shifting man’s desire for approval from God, their Maker, to the serpent and to each other, diverting all of it away from the One Who made them. Man was originally created to receive all of his approval from God, alone, and to draw all of his strength and confidence from the One True King and to spread that abroad.

This meant that, hearing the voice of God, one would understand His heart, know His will and enact it as His faithful servant for all to see and know God in all things. The Kingdom on earth, as it is in Heaven. Sweet. Simple. Beautiful. Clean.

But now, chaos and confusion reigned. Fathers and mothers, lacking in understanding wanted the worship and adoration of their children and to wield control over them to determine who they would become. People were no longer seeking God to know His will concerning either theirs or their children’s lives, therefore no longer nudging their children to seek to know God and to do His will alone over theirs. What was and is now being raised is a/are being(s) that give(s) worship to fellow man in order to gain praise, acceptance and authorization so as to advance towards their desired goal. This goal could be friendship, academic achievement, job placement, career advancement, awards and medals, status, title, money, government tenders. The trade off is always approval. No longer set in their own identities, fathers, mothers and children wander the earth all the days of their lives seeking to gain validation from another man. It’s devastating.

“You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (See Genesis 3). What the serpent said to the woman has spread and become like a cancer, devouring man’s soul through adulterous wisdom passed down from generation to generation, in a world that doesn’t seek to know God or do His will, but rather seeks the things of the flesh, to satisfy themselves with and to drown out the sound of God walking in the Garden in the cool of the day calling out their names and asking, “Where are you?”

But man is so drunk with people pleasing and fear of man, that he won’t tell his president that one of his prized projects is failing, but would rather conceal this failure through deception… that a president would rather imprison children who draw on a picture of him, as a threat and a warning to his citizens, than admit that he has lost the favor of God and support of the people and should rather repent and step down… that a mother and a father would rather force their child into an identity or an education that their friends will approve of, than allow them to rise up on wings as eagles and become who God wants… that a child would rather play along for the sake of not losing favor with an adult and a rather unforgiving society, instead of following the voice and calling of God that speaks to them night and day. And society rots on, and on. Meanwhile there is hope. But will you take it?

John 5:41-44 (NJV) “I do not receive honor from men. But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?