Where Do We Get Self Worth?

Romans 5:8

⁸But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

Romans 8:37-39

³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

            As a child I decided to join the “Huckleberry Hound Fan Club” which meant that I was an official fan of Huckleberry Hound. That’s about it. I got a membership card (which I STILL HAVE) and a button with Huckleberry Hound’s picture on it. I wrote MY NAME on the membership card (IN PENCIL) and I put it in my wallet. That’s about it.

            THEN at some point I also decided to become a member of the Merry Marvel Marching Society (Marvel Comics.) For a dollar they not only sent me a membership card but also a letter that read (in part)…

Congratulations, favored one!

From this day forth, you will stand a little straighter, speak a little wiser, and walk a little prouder.

You’ve joined the winning team!

Henceforth, you shall never march alone.

Thus, we welcome you to the fold with this sagacious admonition-FACE FRONT. You're one of us now. 'Nuff said!

            Along with that I got a button (which I still have) that says, “MAKE MINE MARVEL” and a record so I could learn the Merry Marvel Marching Society theme song, which I did:

You belong, you belong, you belong, you belong to the Merry Marvel Marching Society. March along, march along, march along to the song of the Merry Marvel Marching Society. If you growl, if you groan, and your star is nearly zero, do not howl, do not moan, you can be a superhero, marching right along to the fighting song of the Merry Marvel Marching Society.

            I listened to that record over and over and over again. I desperately wanted to feel good about myself. I didn’t need to be a superhero; I simply wanted someone to tell me that I was good enough to belong AND that’s what the Merry Marvel Marching Society did for me.

            It wasn’t life changing (not in the permanent sense) but it was a moment when I had some hope that I could be OK. AND as long as I stuck with my comic books and listened to the record it seemed to be working. But, even in the 60’s, a dollar could only go so far and the real world had (even then) a tendency to swallow us up. Eventually the button and the record went into a drawer and I went back to wondering if anyone really cared and if I would ever really be good enough to belong.

            I think it is kind of ironic (considering what I do for a living) that the church wasn’t that place. But it seemed to me (at the time) that we were just going through the motions…nothing seemed to apply to my life…it wasn’t my decision to be there. When I was confirmed they gave me a bible with my name on it (but up to that point I had never really read the bible and having one with my name on didn’t really change that.) I think I would have been happier with a button and a record. I know, now, that I should have come away from that experience with a deep sense of God’s love for me and I should have understood that I was part of a kingdom movement, a family of faith and the communion of the saints. But, the reality was that that didn’t happen.

GOD AFFIRMS US BY LOVING US UNCONDITIONALLY

            What I needed to hear was that I was uniquely special BECAUSE God said it was so AND that God loved me unconditionally. The sad thing is that maybe they did and I wasn’t listening but that means that they needed to say it over and over again until I understood like Paul said in his letter to the people in Rome.

Romans 5:8

⁸But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

            God didn’t wait for me to be good enough…he didn’t even wait for me to find him…he went through a process that would open the door for me so that I could become the person I was meant to be…he worked it out so that I could live with him and he could live IN me.

GOD MADE US, AND ALL HIS WORKS ARE WONDERFUL

            And once I was willing to take down the walls and let him into my life then he began to convince me that I was not some cosmic accident. My life has always been a part of his design, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Psalm 139:13-14

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.

            The people who live around us in the world (and we ourselves) will always be tempted to see what is on the outside AND we will make judgments about people based on their height, weight, facial features, style of clothes and the car they drive. If we’re not careful we will get sucked into that way of thinking and most of us will come up short. We will never have enough stuff and we will never be pretty enough or handsome enough.

            What we are meant to learn is that God sees us differently.

There is a story in the Old Testament about the selection of David as King of Israel to replace Saul. The prophet Samuel was called by God to go to the home of Jesse because one of his sons was going to be the new king. So Jesse lines the boys up from oldest to youngest and parades them past Samuel. It says, in 1 Samuel 16…

1 Samuel 16:6-7

⁶When they came, he (Samuel) looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is now before the Lord.” ⁷But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

            The Lord does not see as mortals see. He knows us. He sees us as precious. He was willing to come and live with us and die for us so that we could know how precious we really are.

            So, where does our self-esteem come from? Where do we find self-worth?

            The answer is that we find our hope and our joy and our peace in the PRESENCE of the living God.

            The Merry Marvel Marching Society didn’t really work because it was all made up; it was a fantasy. I didn’t need an alternative universe to try to live in…I needed the living God to step into my universe and live with me HERE and begin to change the way I saw myself, the people around me and the world that I lived in.

            Confirmation didn’t work for me because I needed someone to introduce me to this living God who was able to truly make my life a marvel. I learned facts and dates and the answers to specific questions but I didn’t learn to love Jesus or to be loved by Jesus.

           

            The real wonder of this movement we call Christianity is that it is centered on a relationship with a living God who is able to take ordinary people and give them a new heart so that they learn to love sacrificially and new eyes so that they begin to see the world (and themselves) in a new way.

            Where does our self-esteem come from? Where do we find self-worth?

            First, it is a journey. It doesn’t happen overnight but it is a journey that begins when we are willing to tear down the walls that keep us at a distance from God and then invite him in to be the LORD of our lives.

            The Gospel could be as simple this: You have been invited to belong to a family as old as time. You invited into a Kingdom that is working to redeem the world. You are being invited to come close to a God who sees you as precious as you are. You can become a new person through trusting in Jesus. That journey can begin today.

            Here are some suggestions for things that you might do to begin that journey to new life:

                        First, work on developing your INNER BEAUTY.

                                    SPEND TIME WITH GOD and GET TO KNOW THE ONE WHO LOVES YOU.

LEARN TO PRAY. Learn to open your heart to the living God who loves you and wants to be at work in you AND through you.

LEARN TO REFLECT ON WHAT GOD HAS SAID. Learn from his wisdom. Take your bible off of the shelf and make it a living part of your life.

SPEND TIME WITH THE BEAUTY OF GOD’S CREATION and BE REMINDED THAT GOD DOESN’T MAKE “JUNK.”

FOCUS ON YOUR ABILITIES NOT ON YOUR WEAKNESSES and then learn to USE YOUR GIFTS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN SOMEONE ELSE’S LIFE.

One step at a time you will begin to know that you belong, you belong, you belong, you belong. God is calling you home.