“You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” (Kathryn Stockett, The Help)
Many of us don’t feel important. We might feel smart on occasion, and perhaps someone will comment on our kindness, but rarely do we possess a full-valued sense of importance. And why? Because we have an Enemy (with a capital “E”) who knows our value and will spend his last literal breath to degrade, diminish, and attempt to defeat us.
And I think that’s rude.
When God created us, He created us intentionally and He created us individually. As believers, our common goal should be to reflect and magnify God in every word and action. Individually, we might be glorifying Him differently; some in the country, some in the city, some at work and some at home. But God sees everything, so don’t worry that He’ll not see what you’re doing!
Again, He also created us intentionally! That means none of us fell from the turnip truck and just rolled haphazardly onto the stage of life. Maybe you were born on the turnip truck and got bruised a bit in the process, but none of that should define you. Circumstances don’t define you and your sins don’t define you–only God, who has His fingerprints all around the inside of your cells, has the authority to define you.
But the Enemy doesn’t like that.
No, the Enemy wants you to feel damned and hopeless–after all, that’s all he knows, right?
So he’ll walk around the Earth and casually bump into cute little Christian college girl and “accidentally” mention that she’s one in a million. “Oh, did I say that too nicely? I meant, of course, like one in SO MANY MILLIONS that you really don’t even matter. In fact, why are you even bothering to exist? The world can go on without you; you won’t make a dent in anyone else’s life. Your good grades will just make others think you’re a snob, and your ministry will be pointless.”
And the Master of Miscommunication attempts to re-play those words over and over in the girl’s mind, just enough to blur out last Sunday’s sermon about our identity in Christ and how we’re all called to serve and we’re all playing an important role as we minister to those who are still in spiritual darkness.
Or then he bumps into a young man who struggled all through school, barely making the grade. “College?” a voice sneers. “That’s for smart people, that’s for important people. Why are you wasting your time? High school proved you’re a failure in life. Just stay home and live with your parents, at least they won’t say mean things to you…”
But did you know the young man actually has a genuine heart for the outcasts and misfits? He was the one bringing all his quiet friends to Bible study, staying up late telling them about the saving grace of Jesus.
Or the senior citizen in the back of the church…yeah, the Enemy hates them, too. “You’re so old, you’re just gonna die any day now. Why not just take all of this week’s pills right now instead of sorting them all out? You’re past your prime. You’re finished.”
But did you know that even with her disabilities, this sweet older lady has been unknowingly witnessing to the pharmacist who fills her prescriptions? Her testimony is more than just valid, it is alive and real.
So what are you here to be? Are you here just to be smart and kind? Are you here just to be…well, existing?
Or are you meant to do more than exist, are you meant to BE for Christ? In everything, word…thought…action…to be completely consumed that to be “you” is to really “be Christ” to someone else?
Of course the Enemy doesn’t want you to “be Christ”! Christ is the one finishing him off!
And that’s just plain amazing.
jess leigh hanna 