Validation

Does the failure of another person punctuate my success?

Validation is something that we strive for on a daily basis. We ask ourselves, “Does what I am doing count?” It has at the start the word valid. Validity leads the hearer to assume that a thing has identifiable worth usually supported by concrete proof.

So when a person desires to find some kind of validation they do their very best to earn the respect and recognition and, dare I say it, the love of the people around them. But this kind of validation is received only when a comparison is made with other people. And, sadly, as humans when competition is present we sometimes resort to the cruel practice of pushing others down so that we seem to appear taller; when in fact we are groveling along with the rest in a mucky mire of self-righteousness. And evidence that we are truly lost in the vicious cycle of validation is when we answer an emphatic, “Yes!” to the postulation above.

But here is the core problem with the search for validation… we already have it! Our identifiable worth lies in the unique fingerprints that God the creator left on our precious hands. Our identifiable worth lies in the unmatched speech patterns floating on every simple word we utter. Our identifiable proof is that we are not ‘things’ we are human ‘beings’. We ‘be’. And that is all the validation that Christ needed to provide the concrete proof that supports these findings. He added his DNA to the scene when he shed his blood for us on the cross.

We don’t need to compete and compare ourselves amongst ourselves. The only validation that we need today is the assurance that for God so loved the world. Because he first loved us is the only validation we need to stand tall and be the brother or sister to come alongside another and not be too insecure to say, “Come on. You’re going to make it. Let’s walk together.”

Affirm the validation of the love of Christ for all humankind. Remind someone today that their life counts.

As a P.S. for further discussion I might add if it is true that we are to rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with them that weep it could be assumed that we are to fail with those who fail. The felt failure of another person does not punctuate my success, rather it bids me to come and empathize, pray with, encourage and forgive. For, are we not a body? Does not the pain of another member of the family affect me? Is it not by this treatment of the fallen that all men will know?