The Desire to Be Known

As human beings, we all desire to be known. It's part of our DNA to be heard, understood, and accepted. It influences who we make friends with, what we wear, even the stuff we buy. But in our digital age of presenting ourselves with filters and AI, are we maybe in a great crisis of identity? Like many things are true about us, whether we like art, play an instrument, or maybe we're sporty - but is that who we really are? And what happens if we don't get picked for the team or the band? Who are we then? So many of us try to satisfy our desire to be known with the pursuit of being known by everyone. To be famous. Maybe one day we could be so well known that we could just go by one name like Zendaya or Adele or Mr. Beast. Or maybe we could hit that 1 million subscriber milestone. We could have amazing cars and clothes and huge entourages. But is that desire a little misplaced? Is being famous really as good as it seems? At the time of recording, Kylie Jenner is one of the most famous people in the entire world with over 350 million followers on Instagram. Well, she said this, 'To be well known makes me stressed. I wake up every morning with the worst anxiety.' We may think being famous looks good, but what about the pressure to always look good, to perform well, to say the right things? When you really think it through, perhaps being famous isn't the answer to our desire to be truly known. There's a big difference between knowing about someone and truly knowing them. From our online persona to the person we are at school. It's as if people only see a version of ourselves, the one we're happy for them to see and like. But only our closest friends and family get to know the real us - from silly things like that random hobby, what we're like when we're tired and grumpy, to more important things like our hopes and dreams and values. And if we're honest with ourselves, it's the real us that we have the deep desire to be known and liked. But where does this need to be known come from? What if it came from God? What if we were intentionally created this way? Like for thousands of years, Christians have debated about how the earth came to be. Whether it's young or old, whether we've evolved or not. But there is total agreement on why God created us. Hey, over here. The belief is that we're not just created by God to be known, but to love, be loved and accepted for who we are. It's written that above all other created things, we are uniquely valuable to God. One Bible writer describes it that we are God's masterpiece. I'm certainly not known for my Frisbee ability. Oh, what do you think about all this? Let's find out. If you could be known for one thing, what would you like people to know you for? Mm. Mm. Um. that's a really hard question. I'd like to be known maybe as like a musical artist. I mean, probably just being a good person, you know. Being a nice guy. Probably do some good in the world. My personality, I would say. Being the happiest person in the room or maybe the goofiest person in the room. Being genuine and happy. OK. I think happiness is highly underrated and a lot of people fake it these days. People can be known for the most random of things. Ain't nobody got time for that. Don't make unnecessary journeys. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be known for just one random thing. I think many of us can get pigeonholed or boxed into a certain category. Like I'm known for being a really good basketball player. I'm known for my deep love of Liverpool football club. And I'm known for my really long hair. Not only can you hear me from way off, you can see me coming from miles away, too. But not many of you know that I'm actually quite creative. Beyonce. Ariana Grande. Billie Eilish. Dua Lipa. Uh, it's clearly Adele. Well, here are some drawings that won't be as difficult to guess. There was a man in the Bible named Jesse, and he was known for having too many children. Eleven, to be precise. And eight of them were boys. Now this is at a time when things were going very badly for God's people. And well, they were being led by a very dodgy king. So God sends a man named Samuel to go and find a new king to lead his people. God tells Samuel that the new king will be one of Jesse's eight sons. This is obviously a massive deal for Jesse. So he organises what he thinks is the best seven of his eight sons to go and meet Samuel. It's kind of like a modern day talent show. Yeah. Well, none of them were who God had chosen to be king. But there was still one left. The young guy out in the field looking after the family sheep. So the family called for the final brother David. That's right, that David from the Slingshot And The Giant Killing and Samuel immediately knew that that's who God had chosen. The small one, the young one, the one who was interested in farming rather than being in the army with his brothers. But why is he the one that God wants? He tells us in 1st Samuel 16:7, 'People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.' For God, he knows and loves us on the inside because he knows our true character. Even if we are struggling to see or believe it ourselves. When we talk about character and that it's what's on the inside that counts, kind of speech. You may be tempted to roll your eyes. It's the sort of stuff we hear from family. But it doesn't make it any less true. Real authenticity is rarely seen on social media and not often what we hear from people in school because rightly or wrongly, they're just trying their best to fit in. If being known is a need that we all share, then it needs to be our real authentic selves that people know. Not the fake version where we hide behind our appearance, but the real true us. When it comes to our faith, we believe that to be known by God is to be completely known. That's both the good bits and the bad bits, and yet fully accepted.