Security, Identity, & Worth

Recently I had a public speaking engagement with a group of around 150+ people. As an application point, I shared some personal information which is rather important to me, and will have a long-term impact on those in the audience. As I shared the information, I was not necessarily expecting applause, nor was I expecting a flood of tears -- and that is fine because I got neither...

...but neither was I expecting what I did get:

an awkward pause and the sound of crickets.

At the moment, I chose not to let it distract me from my speaking engagement; chose to just let it go. Later that morning, after talking it through with a few key people in my life, I came to the conclusion there was a very good reason for the non-reaction. The audience was roughly divided into 4 groups of people:

1. people who I told beforehand -- so they were not surprised.
2. people who sort of expected it before I said it -- so they were not surprised either.
3. people who need some time to respond -- so even if they were surprised, they did not react immediately.
and
4. people who don't really know me -- so they had no vested interest in the information.

This neatly explains the sound-of-crickets moment, but does not deal with my insecurity.

In the past, I might have used this (albeit well-rationalized) non-response as an excuse for having a pity-party and get all bummed out and self-focused thinking people don't care for me. In this case that didn't happen. I guess that means God has been answering my prayer that I would find my identity and security only in what He thinks of me.

So...yea!

And...why am I sharing this? Because it is cool, but also because it led me to some belly-deep laughter this afternoon as I reflected on it. And that is my main reason for this post! A friend & coach gave me this quote which started my laughter:

"We're always wondering
what people are thinking of us.

The truth is
they aren't."

Then I got to thinking how that quote would make a great poster for Despair.com, under the heading: INSECURITY. If you are not familiar with their products, &/or just need a good laugh, I suggest you follow the link in the image below and take a few minutes to look through their posters.~ Keith