Who cares what other people think?
There’s something that I think gets formed in high school and college — this sense that you can’t please everybody, that you don’t want to spend your life conforming. That instinct isn’t entirely wrong. But I think it can linger into adulthood in a way that actually isn’t fruitful.
When you’re young, you seem to care so much what other people think, and then you detach from it a bit. But reputation, especially when it comes to living the Christian life, matters.
The reality is simple: if someone has a bad reputation, we are less likely to listen to them — even if they’re speaking the truth. So the question is worth asking. What is our reputation? Do people know us for telling the truth? For being honest, trustworthy, a good listener, a person of integrity?
Now, reputation without substance is just image management. The substance has to be there. But I think it’s okay — good, even — to give some thought to how we are seen. Not for our own sake, but because our reputation either opens or closes doors. And for us, the door we’re trying to keep open is the one that leads others to Christ.
Our reputation is in service of something bigger than us.
Let us pray. Lord, give us reputations worth having and the substance to back them up. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Keep fighting the good fight. Our Lady of Victory, pray for us.
