The Wheel in the Cage

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

Picture a wheel turning in a cage, the small legs going, real effort in it, mile after mile, and the runner exactly where he began. That is the approval carrot, and many of us have run on that wheel for years. 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 person who can always out-work the people around him.

But the carrot is hung from the wheel. It moves when you move. That is the design, and it is why the thing never resolves. You get the promotion and the line simply shifts. You get the compliment and it lasts an afternoon. You get the very approval you were sure would settle you, and by the middle of the week your stomach is tight again and you cannot quite say why, and you already know what you are going to do about it. You are going to run.

Here is the hard thing to say out loud. No one put you on the wheel. It sits in your own cage, and you climb onto it every morning because the running feels like living and stopping feels like dying, and you have never once tested whether that is true. The fear of man keeps the wheel turning. Trust in the Lord is the door of the cage, standing open.

You do not have to leave it forever to find out. Step off for one day. Refuse the next lap. Let a single afternoon pass without earning anyone's good opinion, and see whether the God whose approval you already have was holding you the whole time.