Worth & Productivity
During childhood years one of the phrases that was commonly used on the playground was, "Prove it!" It didn't matter if we were throwing farther, running faster, or eating more, we were kids who liked to ask each other to back up our words with actions.
The funny thing about growing up is that we think that just because we are "adulting" we are no longer children, even when we continue to practice the behaviors and carry the mindset of our childhood into our present age. Jesus calls His disciples to become like children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt. 18:1-4). Our Messiah invites us to become lowly, to recognize our dependence, to sit on His lap, and to become like a child who calls out to their Abba in all things.
The problem is not what Jesus beckoned us to do, but how we are doing it. We have not become like children, we have become childish. We constantly vie for being the coolest, fastest, prettiest, smartest, richest, and strongest kid on the playground. We put others down, strive 24/7, and still end up trying to prove to the world and ourselves that we live from grace not works.
Here's the deal: we have become so absorbed with status and false identity that we have chosen our work, productivity, and bank accounts to define our worth. We don't speak about people based on who they are without saying what they do. We describe people by their financial circumstances claiming the sum of their money is their 'net-worth.'
In this view of humanity and myself, I am consistently exhausted from striving, frequently experiencing feelings of insecurity and inadequacy, and routinely thinking that if I don't produce, I don't matter. When I based my worth on my productivity, I claim a message that is not the Good News of Jesus. In fact, I proclaim a testimony that dismisses the grace of God and exchanges grace for an endless amount of working in order to exist.
However, Jesus stepped foot into our history of performing for love and showed us that our performance could never earn us more or less of His affection. It was while we were still in sin that Jesus died for us (Rms. 5:8). It was before our Savior did any teaching and miraculous deeds that the heavens opened up, the Spirit descended upon Him, and the voice of the Father spoke over Him, "This is the Son I love, and my greatest delight is in him (Mt. 3:17, TPT)."
Jesus, revealing the Father's heart and nature, received His Abba's blessing before doing anything in Matthew's account of the Gospel. He had been born (which, let's be honest, Mary did that) and then went to Jordan River to be baptized by His cousin John. According to our culture, He is worthless. According to the Kingdom and the King on the throne, He is the Son whom the Father loves and in whom He takes His greatest delight.
Then Satan appears in Matthew's story of Jesus tempting Him in the wilderness. Three times the enemy challenges Jesus' sonship and even goes as far to say, "If you are the Son of God... (Mt. 4:3, 6)." How does Jesus combat these lies of striving for identity, proving His power, defining Himself according to socio-economic status, being accepting by the world, etc.?
Our Messiah responds merely with the truth of the Words of His Father. He remains dependent upon His Father and only speaks what He hears the Father speaking. He roots Himself in His Belovedness and acts from eternal truth. "If you are the Son of God..." bounces off Him like the feeble foe who muttered such fallacy. "This is the Son I love..." resounds in His head like the roar of the King who looks upon His Son with great delight.
Friends, what I'm trying to get at is this: you are not your work, you are not your bank account, you are not the car you drive, you are not your GPA, and you are not your failures or successes. You are the one whom the Father loves and in whom He takes great delight. You are the reason Jesus came to earth (Jn. 3:16) and the joy that was set before Him on the cross (Heb. 12:1-2).
Your worth is not based on your productivity. Your value is most fully revealed in the finished work and production of Jesus. And, last time I checked, He spoke: "It is finished (Jn. 19:30)." Last time I checked, Jesus manifested our worth in bankrupting heaven to purchase our lives for eternity. That means you are worth the cost of the eternal, priceless Son of Heaven.
When I catch a small glimpse of this truth, my heart comes alive with the passion for running faster, throwing further, and doing more than I ever could before. And it's not to prove who am I, but it's because of who am I in Christ that I act. When somebody tells me to prove it and echoes the enemy's statement, "If you are a child of God," I can merely stand firm as one who is eternally and wonderfully loved by a Father who gave His Son to call me a child, welcome me in His family, and fill me with His Spirit.
In 1984, there was an Olympic diver for the U.S. team that had to hit a perfect dive to win the gold medal on his home turf. He stepped to the diving board ready to perform one of the most difficult dives in the sport. The previous year another diver died while trying to execute the dangerous leap. As he jumped for gold, he achieved a near-perfect-dive while accomplishing a reverse three-and-a-half somersault.
After he had won gold in Los Angeles, he was being interviewed and was asked what was going through his head before his final dive. The diver, Greg Louganis, said something that has forever changed the way I think about the Lord's love for us. Louganis responded, "I was scared going into the last dive. But I stood there and told myself that no matter what I do here, my mother will still love me. That thought gives you a lot of strength."
Friends, our challenge is to become like children who call on their Abba and live in full assurance that we are still loved whether we perform the perfect dive or not. Our call is to step away from interrogating each other with endless "Prove Its" and to start looking at ourselves and others through the lens of Jesus who has proven it already. Our worth is not found in our productivity, it's located in the love of a Father who calls us to Him. Our identity is not earned by the endless of striving of people longing for accolades and praises. Our identity is given as a gift through the finished work of the Son who casts out fear with perfect love most fully known through His life, death, and resurrection.
I would propose that when we begin to put away the childish "prove its" for the confidence we have as children of God, we will see a movement closer to the Father's heart. I would suggest that when we do things from being loved rather than to be loved, we will run faster, throw farther, and do more than we could ever imagine. I would submit that when our focus shifts from our performance our Savior's affection for us, gold medals will be a regular part of our lives.
I'm not calling us to a place of doing nothing. I believe we are led to a lifestyle of abiding in Christ. Abiding is purely living from and in connection with Jesus. It doesn't mean striving, and it doesn't mean laziness. It is a call for rest in finished work and working from rest, victory, and freedom. It is a lifestyle free from producing to prove our worth, and it is a way of living that says, "that no matter what I do here, my Father will still love me."
Beloved, our Father will still love us and His love is casting out fear and calling us into greater things than we could ever ask or imagine. Rather than proving it, let's just walk together in a limitless love that proclaims our worth in our Savior's productivity. The consensus is in: it's already been proven, and whether I succeed or fail, I live as one in whom the Lord takes great delight.
Here's to that delight that overcomes our striving, that love that reveals our worth, and that invitation to live as a child who doesn't have to earn anything. Maybe we will find that when we stop placing conditions on God's love, we will start living and producing from our value in Christ rather than performing for acceptance. I'd ask you to prove it, but you're already loved and worth it. So, I'll just leave you with the words of a fellow friend who lived as one of God's beloved children.
"`You are my beloved, I want to be with you. Don't go running around, don't start to prove to everybody that you're beloved. You are already beloved'. That is what God says to us." -- Henri Nouwen, Beloved
Amen.
