The Wheel

"For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God?" Galatians 1:10

There is a picture I cannot get out of my head, and it is a hamster on a wheel.

The wheel is going. The little legs are moving. There is real effort in it, real exertion, real sweat if hamsters sweat, and if you were to measure the distance covered you would find that it is genuinely impressive. Mile after mile after mile.

And he is exactly where he started.

That is the approval carrot, and I have run on that wheel most of my life. You think you are going somewhere. You feel the motion. You can point to the effort as proof that something is happening, and effort does feel like progress, especially to a man who has always been able to work harder than the people around him.

But the carrot is hung from the wheel. It moves when you move. That is the design.

And so you get the promotion and the line shifts. You get the compliment and it lasts an afternoon. You get the approval you were sure would settle it, and by Wednesday your stomach is tight again and you are not entirely sure why, and if you are honest you already know what you are going to do about it.

You are going to run.

Here is what I want you to notice. Nobody put you on the wheel. That is the part that is hard to say out loud. The wheel is in your cage and you get on it every morning because the running feels like living, and stopping feels like dying, and you have never once tried to find out whether it is.

What would happen if you stepped off?

Not permanently. Just today.