the CROWD

And as Pilate wanted to satisfy the crowd, he set Barabbas free for them, and after having Jesus flogged handed him over to be crucified. Mark 15:15 JBPhillips

The CROWD is the most influential force in all of the world (other than God). if enough people get together and are focused on a united task, it can happen for good or for evil. It can be a worthy task or a destructive task; purposeful or empty. The crowd can sway opinions of others, can "force" them, without force, to do something they do not wish to do or become somebody they don't want to be.

We too often sacrifice ourselves for the approval of the crowd, thinking that by doing so will give us satisfaction or value or purpose. I can tell you stories upon stories of how the crowds have caused people to become somebody they are not. Our value is too often given to us by the crowd and we are sold in the market at the price the crowd has assigned to us. Our importance depends on how we are viewed by others. Finding ourselves on the stage of the world, we become actors in a play called life. The challenge is to play our true and real part, and not the part that the world demands that we play.

The crowd that a person most deeply connects with is who he will become.