The popularity game, why it is so meaningless to play, and an escape from it. · 10:58pm Jan 17th, 2017

We've all been here, as adult, children, or both. As a kid, I thought if I could dribble a basketball, juggle, use a hoola hoop the right way, or do something else cool and awesome, I was a nobody. I often tried to do things I had no talent for because doing it at least decently would, or so I and many thought and perhaps still think, earn everyone's respect, or at least some of it. Me and at least a couple other people would often crowd around the guy using a Game Boy, playing Pokémon. I ultimately was unable to be a good sports player, and I ended up getting a Game Boy (without Pokémon) too late to join the fad.

Max Lucado has a word about this, in his excellent book Fearless. People like me see ourselves (and might be seen as others) as belonging to the "Tribe of the Too Smalls", the people who don't matter or who are so incapable of doing anything cool that the perception of ourselves is that we're not "good" people, that we can do nothing right. I did find a passion for reading, eventually, but unfortunately, popularity doesn't care how much of the past you know or how many words and chapters you can finish in a day.

Of course, the object of the "game" changes every so often. Certain things will be "in" for a while, only to be replaced by something else entirely. And the changes tends to come just when we think we're getting the hang of the popular thing, and the whole thing starts all over again... and again... and again. It's a social trap that we have difficulty escaping, if we even bother at all.

The popularity game is ultimately pointless. We're not going to win; the entire thing is, by its very design and by the coming and going of fads, incapable of being won, at least not permanently.

"But how will we matter if we aren't good at something popular or into the latest fashion fad?" the reader might ask. You see, that line of thinking is the trouble; the idea that what other people think determines whether or not we matter.

It doesn't.

God made all of us, and as Eli, the stand-in for God, says in the Punchinello children's book You are Special (also by the aforementioned Christian author), "I don't make mistakes." What other people think, and sometimes what we think even about ourselves, is quite often incorrect and flawed. I'm not suggesting at all to go out there and think that the universe revolves around you, but I do say that it doesn't really matter whether or not you're able to do the popular thing or get into the various fads. What matters is that God made you and Loves you beyond our capability - any but His own, in fact - to understand.

We were all made for a purpose. It might not be one that is popular with the world, but the world's opinion isn't important; God's knowledge of who we are is. I invite the reader to take a serious consideration of their life and what truly matters. And always be aware that, as in Punchinello's situation, not everyone agrees with the common practice of giving stars and dots (metaphorically speaking), so if you want to escape the "popularity game," know that you're not the only one, and that some have indeed made their escape from it. The best way to get out is to realize that God loves you, that the perfect Maker made you, and that He doesn't make mistakes. You are all special in your own way.

May God bless and go with you all, and I hope you all have a great year