Facing the Giants

Finally got around to watching the movie "Facing the Giants" last night. Lots of good nuggets in there and very inspirational! Here are 2 clips that hit home for me. The first dovetails nicely with my last few posts about failure and worth. The second is a great parable reminding me of James 2:17 talking about taking action based on faith. Enjoy!

Power through our weakness:
2 Cor 12:9: But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."


Preparing for rain:
James 2:17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

More on Worth

To continue a bit with the last post, I want to turn it on it's head. Worth has nothing to do with failure, but it also has nothing to do with success. We as human beings are intrinsically valuable simply because we are. Christ died for the rich successful people also! Accomplishment does not change one's inherent value any more than failure alters one's inherent value. Falling down and getting up again is a part of life. Those that keep getting up tend to succeed in this life, but are not more valuable as humans than those who are stuck face down in the mud!

As I continue to replace my old thought patterns of worth = performance, I am becoming more free to decide how I want to be rather that what I want to be. I made a list yesterday. (Again keeping in mind that my worth is already established by the Creator of the Universe - not by my little list!) Anyway, it contains the things I am good at, the things I want to do in life, and how I want to be. I'm excited about it. I can now look forward instead of backward. I will fail. I will get up. I will never ever ever give up. 'Course, I may need a good kick in the pants occasionally, or someone to help drag me up when I'm really stuck - but that is why God made us relational beings and hooked me with some awesome people!

"Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Phil 3:13-14

Brain Training: Worth

I failed this week. I missed something obvious. I should have known better and it is driving me nuts. I've been tossing and turning at night trying to justify my failure to myself, because if I did in fact fail, it would mean that I'm not perfect!

I have and will continue to struggle with the faulty idea that my value is based on performance.
I'm sure many of you struggle with this as well. We are constantly bombarded with the lie that what we do or accomplish is directly correlated with our intrinsic value. We strive to achieve, and dedicate ourselves to obtaining total control of our lives in order to appear valuable to others. If we fail, we (or at least I) tend to think that we are useless, a failure, or unworthy of love. This is a toxic lie! Let us unpack this a bit:

First off, perfectionism is ridiculous. (I'm allowed to say this since I'm a recovering perfectionist) Not only is it ridiculous, but it is sin. I am not God. Only God is perfect. If He is perfect, and I am not God, I cannot be perfect. To attempt to be perfect on my own power is essentially to claim that I am my own god, and that I do not need the God of the Universe in my life. This was the seduction leading to the fall of Adam in the garden of Eden - the original sin. "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:4-5) The idea that we can be like God, or be God, puts us in the driver's seat when we don't have a license!

Second of all, performance has absolutely no bearing on our intrinsic value.
God says: "I have loved you with an everlasting love. Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine . . . You are precious to me. You are honored and I love you." (From Is 43 and Jer 31) God said this about Israel during a time when they had failed miserably to obey Him. If God, who is perfect, can love us completely when we have accomplished nothing worthwhile, then we must be intrinsically worthwhile!

The Bible continually reminds us that who we are has nothing to do with what we do. Some of my favorite stories illustrate this beautifully: The adulteress caught in the act, the Samaritan women at the well, the thief on the cross, the tax collector turned disciple, the demon possessed man healed, the blind, crippled, and broken that Jesus healed just as they were (they didn't have to do rehab or clean themselves up first). Jesus demonstrated His love for these people as he forgave, healed, and called them friends. He demonstrated His love for all time, when He died a brutal death on a cross to take our punishment for the sins we hadn't even committed yet. We all fall short of perfection, but God died for us anyway - once and for all stating that He loves us just as we are.

So, for brain training purposes - I will choose the above verse or stories and think about them every time I begin to focus on my failures. My value is based on the fact the I am a unique creation. I am a child of the King. I am God's beloved. I will meditate on these things frequently to slowly alter my thought life and perception of reality. To speed up the process, as often as possible this next week, I will combine these thoughts with my mobility work or exercise sessions to cement in the good neural pathways!

"I have loved you with an everlasting love. Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine . . . You are precious to me. You are honored and I love you."