Not Keeping Score

I'm thankful that the work we do does not equate with who we are.

It is both a frightening, disconcerting thought and a freeing one, really.  It used to bother me and still from time to time trips me up.

Who am I, if what I do does not define me?  How else do I define myself?
Verses to consider:

19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.   (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)


17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!  (1 Corinthians 5:17)

My efforts to validate myself through what I do aren't what give me value. 

I already HAVE my value.  I already am just as good as my neighbor, my uncle, my brother, my friend Kelsey from kindergarten who I haven't spoken to in 15 years. 

Why?  I am created by God, the Living God.  I am loved by Jesus Christ. Every one of us.  That there is what's on my bar code (well, if I had one).  "Treasured by God."  It scans again and again on everybody else's value measure too.

What do I do with that?  If I am so valuable without doing anything, then why do I....well... do stuff? 

 Why does Alan go for honor roll, why should I help at the shelter, why should I advise my kid sister to not punch the boy that broke her favorite toy?

Three things.

I'M MADE VALUABLE.  "YOU DON'T WASTE GOOD CROPS!"

A metaphor:  if someone leaves 10 dollars on the table, you don't let the two year old shred it.  No- you use it for a good reason.  Imagine a  one-hundred dollar bill! Or, vegetables.  If you are hungry and you have a crop, do you leave it for the elements to decompose?  NO! You eat them!

A)  Let's say I am compassionate.  At the homeless shelter, there are hurting people.  I am able to put my compassion to good use there.  Or let's say I'm ambitious. I have big dreams and i like a challenge.  That can go into my striving for honor-roll grades.  I'm puttng to USE how I am. (one might go for honor roll, another might put his or her ambition elsewhere).  I'm compassionate, I'm ambitious, I care about mercy and think my sister can solve the dispute in a better way than punching the other kid.  I'm exercising who I am.

Would it be a waste of me not to?... Is it not fully living to exercise how I'm made in constructive ways?

Colossians 3:23
Colossians 3:17

You may say "I am an angry person. I get frustrated easily.  So then, do I exercise that aspect of me?"  No.  That damages other aspects of what is important to you, like relationships and opportunities.  Things like acting out in anger fall into the sin category because they attack life-giving things.  Anger itself isn't sin, but fueling it to an erruption point and those actions in the erruption, are sin. 

JESUS SETS THE EXAMPLE.

B) God asks us to live like Jesus did.  "Follow Me"

Jesus had a heart for the broken, so he healed them.

Jesus cared about people knowing the truth, so He taught.

Jesus said a good leader is one who is the lowest, like a servant.  So He washed the disciples' feet.

etc., etc.  I might go to the homeless shelter, then, because God cared for the poor and commanded that we love our neighbors as ourselves- neighbor defined basically as anyone we come into contact with (Parable of the Good Samaritan).   As I get to know God better, too, and allow the Holy Spirit to take up "more" of me---- (like a sponge- I wanna be dripping and leaking the Holy Spirit! Up to me to be a receptive sponge or not.  It usually takes time to become more receptive, like growing always does [unless u are a 14 yr old boy who grows a foot overnight])---   as i allow th Holy Spirit to take up more of me and I become more like God as I get to know Him better,  then I become concerned about people who are struggling or hurting.  God's love for others grows in me.


I volunteer or help or love other people because that is what God wants of me. That is what is important to GOD!

 Even as my heart changes, what becomes the desire of MY heart!

Love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.  Luke 10:27


I'd like to point out one other, very less theological thing. I think at least.

ONE BULLET IN THE CHAMBER

C) We only have this one shot when it comes to life on earth.  Once the bullet is fired, it doesn't get fired again. 

I don't want to waste myself, and I don't want to waste this LIFE.  I want to invest to live the fullest life God gave me the resources and chance to live.  Sure, Heaven will be great, but I am alive NOW.   You don't wait for the water park to open in winter, you find a sled and a hill and go sledding!  Meager comparison, but you get my drift.  God gave me this life.

You know... actually, there is Scripture that goes with that perfectly.  The parable of the talents.  When you are given something, don't waste it or hide it!  Invest it.  Matthew 25:13-30; another similar one is Luke 19:11-27.


I'm glad what I do doesn't define my value!  I'm also so glad I (and every person) was made with so much value.  Didn't earn it at all-

And that's the point!!

Grace

some Scriptures

Psalm 139 

 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand —
when I awake, I am still with you.

¹⁹ If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

The word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” – Jeremiah 1:4-5

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Where do you find yourself- are you striving to like yourself and earn approval from others by what you do?  Or do you find your worth in Christ and the fact that God MADE you and DIED for YOU?

What strengths has God made you with?  How did God design you individually?  Can you see how God uniquely designed someone else you know? (Consider encouraging them with what you notice!)

How can you spend more time with God?

(Discuss these with a friend or someone you look up to, or go through them on your own.)



YOU ARE TREASURED!  God bless!

(PS... i can't help but leave this song.. Remind me Who I am by Jason Gray. one of my favorites... it KIND OF relates to this post.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKyY8zfjBMQ&ob=av2n )