Sometimes you lose your sense of value and purpose, wondering if your dreams will ever become a reality and if legitimate needs will ever be met. Then you start the slide of rehearsing everything that is wrong about you and your life and quickly a sense of well being can turn to feelings of valuelessness and despair. I was starting the slide when I got this email from my wife and read this post from Kathy and received a note of encouragement from my friend, Rachel. Sometimes, you can’t help but feeling like God is trying to tell you something.
A well-know speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill.
In the room of 200, he asked, “Who would like this $20 bill?”
Hands started go up.
He said, “I am going to give this $20 bill to one of you, but first, let me do this.
He proceeded to crumple up the $20 dollar bill.
He then asked, “Who still wants it?”
Still the hands were up in the air.
Well, he replied, “What if I do this?”
And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe.
He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty.
“Now, who still wants it?”
Still the hands went into the air.
My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson.
No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value.
It was still worth $20.
Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.
We feel as though we are worthless.
But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value.
Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who do love you.
The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but by who we are and whose we are.
You are special.
Don’t ever forget it!
It seems counter intuitive that Jesus saved his harshest words for those who were in religious leadership and had words and deeds of encouragement for those who were forgotten or disdained by society. Those who were the least popular with the religious powers that be, were the most popular with Jesus.
John, The Baptizer
In looking for people that Jesus commended and encouraged, John, the Baptizer immediately came to mind. He was, by all accounts, a weird dude. I imagine him as a cross between Jeremiah Johnson and Keith Green (You may have to ask your parents who these guys were.) He dressed weird, ate weird stuff, and lived in the wilderness while talking about the Messiah who was coming and how everyone needed to repent. He spoke truth to power and died young because of it. Jesus basically said that that he was the greatest mortal of all time. There were other unlikely people for whom Jesus had encouraging words, like children and societal outcasts, basically, people who showed real honesty about themselves and sincere faith in him.
Risk Takers
I can’t help but think that Jesus is still especially endeared to those people who show uncommon faith in him to the point of taking risk-ladened action in his behalf.
Aid workers in places like Darfur who leave a comfortable life to serve people entrapped in hopelessness.
Thinkers like Brian McLaren who know that their call to look at things differently will incur the wrath of the religious establishment
Pastors in small churches who keep loving and reaching out in ways that connect well their constituency and ways that they just don’t understand, yet
Entrepreneurs, free spirits, and revolutionaries who cannot settle for the way things are, but insist in looking for new ways to be the church and a kingdom influence in their neck of the woods
Lovers who insist on loving people, no matter what, no matter how much they have been hurt, no matter how different they are, no matter what their ethnicity or religion is
Simple people who just believe Jesus and want to walk in his ways, who stumble, fall, and sin, but who don’t let the baggage of their sin and failures define them, but insist on believing what Jesus says about them and showing the same to others
Me In a sense there are parts of the above-described people within me, but I seem to get stuck a lot and I really don’t understand that. Though, I have to admit, that often as I struggle through my stuck-ness, a new kind of growth, peace, and determination comes out the other side. I believe that Jesus would have some encouraging words for those who have something of him stirring within, but who feel stuck.
He might say something like: Let it go. Confess. Forgive. Repent. Stop believing those messages of satan that would define you by your sin and failure. Stop believing the shit that others occasionally fling your way about having no role to play in their kingdom. Be who I made you to be. Don’t wait for my leading to come gift wrapped and set on your doorstep by the UPS guy. Experiment. Take risks. Love people again. Expect to get hurt and to be disappointed sometimes. Consume yourself with showing me and my love to whomever to encounter. Look for ways for the light of my kingdom to shine in the dark corners of your community and the world. Now, go!
Perhaps you have tracked Paul Potts road to stardom on the English version of American Idol. There are several YouTube downloads available. This is his first appearance on the show.
I am not generally a fan of opera, but at times I find the shear beauty and drama of it can move me to tears. Though the real story is Paul, the awkward child who needs some dental work and grows up to work at the cell phone store. Yet, he has an untapped gift, and against all odds, pushes forward to find an outlet for it.
I have found so many people who identify with that story and are inspired by it, including myself.
Sing on, Paul!
Keep pressing on for the expression of what God put within you, my friend!
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Posted by Glenn
