At every age and at every season we need to be reminded of something. We need to be reminded we are more than enough. We are worthy. We spend our time, energy, and intention looking for worth instead of operating from a place of worth.
In our youth, it’s far too easy to find our worth in someone else, applause from those “people” and in our dewy skin and tiny waistline. In our twenties and thirties, we find it in the size of our house, flashy cars, job promotions, and in as few stretch marks as possible after kids. We want so badly to look the part and have it all. Because then we are worthy of love, right?
Like so many, I’ve found myself striving and reinventing myself for the perceived value that comes from someone else. While there is nothing inherently wrong with nice cars, a trim waistline, and a dream job, when it becomes our everything, above communion with Jesus, we have a serious problem on our hands. We go on, grappling to earn our worth through activity and ownership rather than true sonship with the King.
The truth is: we are loved. Just as we are.
Shauna Niequist, in her new book Present Over Perfect openly testified,
“But this is what I’ve learned the hard way: what people think about you means nothing in comparison to what you believe about yourself.”
In another chapter, she writes,
“Go back to being loved; go back to your purpose. This thing I am being asked to do will not get me more love. And this will not help me meet my purpose.”
Isn’t that beautiful? Simply true? No one gives you permission to be the greatest version of yourself. The gift is already yours. There is no fountain of applause that will satisfy your deepest desire. What you believe about yourself in light of God’s generous saving grace is the difference maker.
We can be, simply be, ourselves. Not a shined up version, just us. Imperfect and flawed. It’s ok to be ok, and it is certainly ok to NOT always feel ok. Either way, we are worthy of love, affection, and peace. We can access it when we call on the Master, the Redeemer, the Rescuer.
The Master sent his Son because you were worth it. The Redeemer looks to redeem every pain, sin, and loss because you are worthy of full redemption. The Rescuer gallantly rides on his white horse of mercy and truth because you are worthy of a grand rescue.
Let us write on the walls of our heart:
1 Peter 1:18-21 (MSG) Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It’s because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God.
Ephesians 2:4-9 (ESV) But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.
Ephesians 3:17-19 (MSG) My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
In a defunct culture, where you are valuable only if you are the right color, right weight, with the right job, right car, and right platform, may we shout from the rooftops the true value of everyone including ourselves. Not defined by our expectations. May we speak value, worth, and greatness over ourselves and those around us, no exceptions.