G.O.A.T

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G.O.A.T has been a term that's been bandied about a lot recently.Anyone in football circles will know that this term is not with reference to the domesticated animal that has to bid sayonara to this world and find its resting place in our bellies during Easter or Christmas. No, not that goat. G.O.A.T is an acronym for the Greatest of All time and that usually precipitates passionate debate over whom the worthy recipient of this title is, Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.

For years these two footballers have hogged the Ballon D'Or, splitting opinion as to who actually deserves to be considered the greatest of all time between them. Their ridiculous goal-scoring feats will undoubtedly take ages to be surpassed. Over long stretches of time, they have been streaks ahead of everyone else. On some days though, they put in very sub-par performances that remind us, they're actually human after all. Ronaldo, for example, didn't really look like the G.O.A.T. during last season's UEFA Champions League final. He was anonymous for most of the game. His Welsh teammate, Gareth Bale, more than eclipsed him after coming on as a second-half substitute. In fact not only did he eclipse Ronaldo, he re-announced himself on the big stage by scoring one of the greatest Champions League final goals ever, a bicycle kick so good that it took a while for our minds to register that it had indeed gone in. Bale certainly endeared himself to Madridistas with that moment of magic. Quite naturally, he should have been the one taking the spotlight afterwards but it wasn't to be, it was Ronaldo.

Ronaldo, after the game, said it was a delight to play for Real Madrid raising a whirlwind of speculation about his future at the club. His bombshell, minutes after Madrid's triumph was anything but ideal. It wasn't the best time to say what he did. He acknowledged it himself. Football websites highlighted how in  speaking about playing for Real in past tense, he had redirected the focus to himself away from Real Madrid's win and Gareth Bale's stunning performance.

They opined that Ronaldo had made it all about him. In truth and taking into account his chequered history, not many can fault them for their scathing assessment of the Portuguese's bombshell. He has always been one to be seen as egocentric. As a result, he is loved and hated in equal measure. His celebrations when he scores, his displeasure when teammates don't pass him the ball to score, depict him as a man all about himself. The saying, there is no 'I' in team isn't always heeded by Ronaldo. I won't weigh in on CR7 because quite frankly I do the same and worse.

More than I'd love to admit, I want it to be about me sometimes. I want to be the center of attention. I want to be the name on everyone's lips. I want to be the poster-boy. I want to be the one whose quotes  outlive him. Don't get me wrong, I don't want it 24/7. I prefer the background rather than the glare of the limelight. Neither do I want my own version of Keeping it with Kenneth. I don't really want people to worship me and intone my name like mindless zombies or sycophants. I just want recognition. I want to feel significant.  I want validation. It's an indispensable need. I guess it's an indispensable masculine need, to be affirmed. You could argue it's an indispensable need for women as well but I reckon men need it more.

I owe my need for affirmation to my steady growth as a man, much of it due to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit as he conforms me more and more to be like Jesus. I look back at the trail I've left, the milestones I've achieved and my heart swells with glowing pride at the man I've become due to Jesus' sanctifying work in my life. I want others to celebrate what God has been doing by affirming it.

"Wow Ken! You've changed so much! You're such a role model! You're an inspiration! I admire your faith! I see Jesus in you! Your walk with Christ inspires me! That was really profound what you said there!" I yearn for those kind of compliments here and there. I hunger for affirmative responses from men and women alike. Weird thing is that as much as I usually talk up God's love as being the ultimate love, it should follow his affirmation is just as lofty but I don't act like it is with all this hankering for human affirmation. It's a duplicity I'm acutely aware of and not too proud of.

Ironically, I value praise from my fellow man more than God's. I deem God's private affirmation as inadequate and instead, rank man's public affirmation as all-sufficient. When you put this in perspective, you have to scratch your head and wonder why. Consider this juxtaposition, On one hand you have God, a being who was before time existed. He was the one who created the world, not by blood or sweat, but by speaking it into being. We watch movies with people having tele-kinetic super powers of moving objects with their minds or hands, God has the power to create material objects with his words. Continents, soaring mountains, vast seas, expansive skies came forth into being just by him uttering them into existence. God  is immortal, invulnerable, perfection personified, supremely the same yesterday, today and forever more. Then there is a man, a being whose life is unlikely to go beyond 90 years if he's lucky, a being who struggles to find out his own purpose let alone those of things surrounding him. A being who has to be taught to eat with a spoon, taught to pee, taught to crawl, and dies still not knowing close to half of what there is to know. A being vulnerable and incapable of overcoming the common cold. A being restricted by the boundaries of space, time, gravity. Considering the aforementioned, how then can man's praise be on a higher pedestal and God's lower? Makes absolutely no sense doesn't it.

Why can't I be content with the author of humanity's private affirmation even when no-one is singing praises to the tune of my name? Why do I prefer man's affirmation when he is on a constant collision course with change and relativity?  Permanence has eluded him for centuries. He is always in a state of flux, he is erratic in mood, shifting in attitude, preferences and knowledge of what is good and wrong. How then can his affirmation be considered superior to God when he shifts his conscience so readily?

With man, it's always a never ending cycle. One person affirms you today the next day they forget your achievements, Jose Mourinho knows this only too well and like him, we'll be clamoring for respect. One person considers you a great deal while another thinks you're not, you then strive to get affirmation from the one who doesn't, when you do get it, you meet someone else who doesn't affirm you, and you strive to get theirs, and you find someone who else who doesn't, and you strive to... I'm sure you get the picture. The sad news is the world is not short of people who won't affirm you, in fact it has plenty of them, billions by a conservative estimate and if you keep on chasing their affirmation, you won't get it all even if you were given a thousand lifetimes. How exasperating then it must be to seek this validation because you will never have enough of it.

Isn't God a far superior affirmer, the best actually. Man can't judge or affirm absolutely because he doesn't know all the facts. God knows the facts,  the motives, the unseen complex web of intricate circumstances that had a bearing on the action. He can thus affirm totally and absolutely. His affirmation is superior because he can attach the exact measure of praise since he knows the exact measure of effort factoring in all aspects of that action or lifestyle.

God is never-changing, the same, today, yesterday and forever, never one to lie unlike man who can say a thing or two so I don't catch feelings. Man will affirm you possibly to reap the spoils from you. You know, give someone a compliment or two, so that they can be inclined to return the courtesy you paid them. God won't. He doesn't need to. He gives compliments no-strings attached. He is thus a much more reliable judge. He is the best judge actually and if he affirms me, of what need is there for anybody else's affirmation.

I really struggle with this praise thing. I'm no Paul or Barnabas, I think I would readily soak in the adulation of those in Lystra and have little qualms about been  hailed as some sort of demi-god.(Acts 14:8-16) Rather than tearing my clothes and telling them to stop because I am a man just like them, I would like to think that I'd believe the hype and let them go on,but clearly it's not the way.

It must not be, because Jesus didn't seek men's validation. He wasn't the braggart to call attention to his works. He wasn't in pursuit of vainglory. Matter of fact, some miracles he insisted on keeping it low profile. A lot of miracles. Cheza chini is something Jesus did quite often where others would have called for a presser to call attention to their deeds. Even when it was something as monumental as his transfigured appearance with Moses and Elijah that had Peter blabbering, he laid low and told Peter, James and John to speak nothing of it until his resurrection. Jesus clearly didn't really see the measure of his significance by how people perceived him but instead by how his father did. Most time our heavenly father's viewpoint is far different from man's.

God's validation has sharply contrasted man's as well. David the shepherd was the king in God's mind not his big brother Eliab who had all the appearances of a king in waiting and Samuel's too. The widow giving two copper coins was the generous one in Jesus' eyes as opposed to the bourgeouis who gave what many would perceive as lavish gifts.(Luke 21:1-2) Mary was considered to have chosen what was better by spending time with Jesus as opposed to Martha who did the lion's share of the work in hosting Jesus.

I've noticed in scripture God affirms an individual right before adversity strikes leading to a period which could possibly cause one to question their self-worth. David was anointed King, then afterwards for close to two decades he lived life as a fugitive. Joseph was affirmed as a leader in  dreams, then spent years in obscurity and a  dungeon away from the people he was to lead. Jesus was affirmed by God when God said, "This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."(Matthew 3:17) Shortly after that Jesus was in the dessert for 40 days, tired, hungry and thirsty being tempted by the Devil.

We've conditioned to think that affliction or adversity is an indication of diminished self-worth. With God, it's almost the opposite. Going through tough times is an affirmation. There's a quote that goes, "God give his hardest battles to his toughest soldiers." That too me is a concise explanation to Hebrews 12:5-6, "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."

God loves us so much that he isn't content with us remaining the same. He allows trials to come away to make us better. He uses them to chisel us, and sculpt us into exquisite pieces of his transforming work. Mother Theresa famously quipped, " I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that he didn't trust me so much." Isn't it awesome when God considers us ready to go through hardship. Isn't that God affirming how strong of character we are, besides wanting to reveal himself more to us. The early church of Acts had this same outlook on life and it is no wonder they thrived. In Acts, the apostles left the Sanhedrin after being wrongfully imprisoned and flogged, but they did so rejoicing that they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for their faith.(Acts 5:41). Such an outlook would be so out-of-place in today's world where we gripe at having to face the slightest of challenges.

It's indeed striking that in Hebrews 11, the people rated as 'lit', the people whom the world was not worthy of ,were the loners, the destitute, the marginalized, the afflicted. Tough times don't last but tough people do and perhaps we should sometimes reclaim that apostle-mentality of being counted worthy of suffering disgrace, adversity for Jesus' name, after all God is affirming our faith and proving it as genuine as Peter inferred in one of his letters.

A lot of times we might go through life shorn of compliments. We may fail to hear an affirming word or two from those whom we yearn to hear it from. That shouldn't push us off a cliff plunging to despair. That shouldn't compel us to relentlessly be cool or to go great lengths people-pleasing to seek their affirmation. It shouldn't mean we have to compromise our values or overlook misdemeanors of the ones whom we want validation from. Neither should we sulk and be broody when we don't get affirmed.

God longs to relate with us. He longs to affirm us, chiefly through his word, through  numerous times in scripture. If we would just make time to spend time poring over his word,he would affirm us more regularly. From scripture, he affirms me by saying I am his masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10 NLT). He affirms me by telling me that I shouldn't let people look down on me because I am young but continue to set an example to the believers in speech, in love, in faith and in purity. (1 Timothy 4:12) He affirms me by telling me that I am more than a conqueror(Romans 8:37). He affirms by telling me I an wonderfully and fearfully made(Psalms 139:14) He affirms me by claiming me as his child. (1 John 3:1)  These and so many other verses affirm me.I believe.

To get affirmation from the real, greatest of all time, is really something. Who better to affirm my masculinity than the greatest man who ever lived in Jesus. Who better to affirm Godliness in an individual than God himself? Who better to affirm righteousness than Jesus who lived a righteous life as a man without committing a single sin. Too often we look for affirmation but find it in pint sized portions.

Parents can only affirm so much. So too can our peers or our mentors.  A girlfriend can only affirm your masculinity partially. A husband can only affirm you as a lady to an extent. Accolades, plaques, gala dinners where you get awards and recognition from luminaries in your professional field as well as your business contemporaries can only go so far until people move on to their hustle. Compliments from your fellow ladies for your hair or your outfit or your foundation will satisfy for a day or too at best and will be nowhere when you look ordinary or below. Slay queen today with numerous likes, stares from guys, but still struggling with security. Human validation never quite satiate us. After all, we have been deviating from the original standard God had for humanity at such a rapid and regressive rate, we no-longer really know what a model person really looks like. That, and the fact that we are all chasing affirmation for ourselves that we seldom have time to affirm others.

The only one able to affirm us is the very one who made us, the one who knows everything about us. Only he can fill the God-shaped void in our hearts for affirmation. Only affirmation from the greatest of all time will render us content. Sure, being affirmed by men and women is great, but rest assured being affirmed by the Greatest of all time, is infinitely better.