When my boys were younger they loved to wrestle. Sometimes in the middle of combat, I’d playfully take their hands saying, “Don’t hit yourself, don’t hit yourself.”
They giggled to tears. They soon did the same thing to me!
Sounds a lot like life.
We “hit ourselves” or beat ourselves up over our deficiencies and defects, failures and faults.
Yet it’s no laughing matter.
Consider these:
INSECURITY.
Please love me, so I can love me.
Please like me, so I can like me.
Please accept me, so I can accept me.
This is the voice of insecurity.
The chorus of social media.
Everywhere we go, whatever we do, and whomever we see, it’s often the loudest voice in our head.
And in the room.
PERFECTIONISM.
Perfectionism is fear. Fear of not living up to _________.
Fear of being discovered a fraud. Fear of shame.
It’s an attempt to escape failure and rejection.
Perfectionism is when your (and my) entire self-worth is riding on something.
No wonder we procrastinate. Or don’t follow through. Or don’t take risks.
Perfectionism is self-sabotage.
COMPARISON.
Comparison is the thief of joy. The enemy of peace.
It’s thinking the grass is greener on the other side only to discover it’s artificial turf.
It’s the constant feeling that you’re missing out.
Comparison is being convinced that there’s something or someone or somewhere that’ll finally cram eternal happiness into your heart.
Comparison means you’ll never be satisfied.
Insecurity, perfectionism, and comparison carry a single refrain:
You are not enough.
Never enough.
So what is?
Practicing daily affirmations of self-acceptance?
Maybe.
Finding more will-power not to procrastinate and take risks?
Sure.
Being grateful and focused more on what you have instead of what you don’t have?
That’s a good one. Run with that.
Still though, don’t you feel something’s missing?
The Apostle John brings us home: “This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and gave His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
Something is only worth what someone is willing to give for it or pay for it.
Jesus gave it all for you on the cross. He paid it all for you with His very life and blood.
That’s how much you’re worth.
Cosmic love.
Cosmic worth.
Cosmic joy.
Cosmic “enough.”
All yours.
Now you can walk into a room with nothing to prove and nothing to lose.
Now you can post on social media for fun, not for worth.
Now you can go for broke—as imperfect as it may be—because on the cross Jesus was broken for you.
Now you can finally stop beating yourself up.
And instead give yourself up.
To the one who gave it all up.
For you.
3 of the most dangerous words that have been holding us back as a church can be countered with 1… Love!!!!
Yessir! Thanks for commenting.