When I became an adult I thought that I would finally have
everything figured out, and that the other adults around me would have it
figured out too. Not only did I find out that’s not true, but I also found out
that everyone is trying to figure out what the heck they are doing. Adults,
Teens, kids, we all want to know what we are worth, and we all desperately
cling to things that we hope give us value.
This upcoming weekend is the Youth Group’s Coffeehouse event. Coffeehouse is our big event that is part family dinner, part live music, and part talent show. My favorite part of the event is that it is entirely planned and executed by high school students with one college leader as a point person. While Coffeehouse has evolved over the years as the Youth Group’s interests have changed, it has always been a significant memory within the family. Coffeehouse is a big deal in my world, and between it, Thanksgiving, and the impending Christmas season, November feels like a busy month. As a result I have been feeling more acutely my weaknesses in time management and staying on top of things.
This week I feel like I have not been very productive and it leads to me feeling insecure like I am inadequate. I am not by nature a planner; I tend much more to be a figure-it-out-as-you-go-along person. This makes me very good at last minute situations, relative to the population, but not very good at preparing things well in advance. I have found that in working with youth, being adjustable is very valuable; and however, it is certainly not the most efficient method of getting work done. This is not new to me of course, I have been wired in a certain way all of my life, but moments come when I forget who I am and feel like I am supposed to be more effective, more productive, and more efficient. These feelings almost always result in a voice saying that I am not good enough and that in the end, I am inadequate.
This, however, is not the truth. The truth is that my value is not connected to my productivity or my efficiency or my effectiveness or even my ability as a leader or even my adequacy as an adult in general. My worth is not determined by who hires or fires me, or what my boss or the people around me think of me, or even what you, the reader, think of me. I am valuable because the Creator God, who designed me and gave me purpose, loves me and says that I belong to him. This is what I was reminded of this week when I felt like I should have been more productive this week. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, wrote, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God.”[1] And most amazing of all, there is nothing that I can do to diminish my worth because God will not disown me. Paul, who began his career BY PERSECUTING BELIEVERS later wrote, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”[2] My Creator delights in me, and no matter how bad things get there is nothing that will ever change that.
One of our undercurrent themes this year at Youth Group is that living as a Believer is counter-cultural. The reminder I got this week is the perfect example of that. This world works in a way that screams that your value is in what you contribute, or your monetary “net worth”, or what people think of you (including what your legacy will be). It is totally 100% the opposite to live with the truth that, while some of those things have value, none of them have anything to do with what you are worth. Your worth is based only on the love that the Creator has for you, and that will never go away.
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