Get off the roller coaster!

There are so many things that the world says makes us valuable, and especially in the developmental years of high school, so many become trapped by a lie concerning their personal worth & self-value. Think about how easily our feelings are hurt by others’ words, or how quickly we get defensive when someone tries to give “constructive criticism,” or how confident we can be in one setting and how insecure we can be in another. Why? In my opinion, we are a wounded nation (specifically in relation to our sense of self-value). American culture and it’s “core values” are pushed on us everyday (music, movies, t.v. shows, advertising, and a little thing called internet). I know it’s easy to think “that stuff doesn’t affect my thinking,” but it certainly does, even if it’s an indirect, “silent” speaking.

The lie is simple, but so crippling: in order for me to be valuable and important, I must prove myself. To put it differently- I need to show why I deserve attention, love, respect, worth. The result of this twisted thinking is daily strivings to”increase” our self-value, through winning more games, losing more weight, dating more people, wearing trendier clothes, making more people laugh, wearing more make-up, earning better grades…you get the point. Every day can feel like a roller coaster ride, with moments of feeling valued and important (up!), yet inevitable times of feeling insignificant and insecure (down!), and everywhere in between. I lived on the roller coaster for years, including many after I had already begun a relationship with God. Even now there are relapses when I choose to get back on it. It’s never a good ride (although the “up times” temporarily feel pretty good), and the biggest thing I want to communicate now is that we do not have to live life here. The lies of our culture can be replaced with truth. The truth empowers us to choose to get off the ride (and there absolutely is a choice involved). As humans, we have 100% self-value 100% of the time. According to the Bible, every human being is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and because of this, all peeps, regardless of their age, sex, race, religious affiliation,etc. is worth being honored as God’s creation (1 Peter 2:17). This fact does not dismiss the reality that all humans are naturally born sinful and in need of God’s redeeming forgiveness and grace. Nor does this imply that all people are worthy of your respect. However, there is innate worth in people because they were created by God, the Creator.

But the real question is this- how do we get off this suppressing roller coaster? How do we break this cycle? How can we be secure in who we are consistently? Look at Jesus. Before he began his earthly ministry (remember he spent 30 years growing, maturing, preparing), God the Father spoke to him audibly after he was baptized, saying “this is my son, whom I love, with him I am well-pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Jesus had no need to “prove” himself powerful/respectable/valuable because his father’s complete approval was extended before he did anything. Sticking with the metaphor, Jesus was freed from getting on the roller coaster of fluctuating self-value because he experienced His father’s validation–that he had 100% value. Outside of encountering God’s forgiveness, there is no experience that a person can have to embrace this 100% self-value. Only the unconditional approval and acceptance from God through Jesus can rescue us from the roller coaster. Just as Christ is the son of God, so those who place trust in Christ are adopted into the divine family as God’s sons and daughters, with whom He is pleased, apart from our spiritual performance. When it comes to self-value, you can’t earn what you already have, and the Bible is clear that you already have 100% value, 100% of the time. And it has nothing to do with your “performance” for God. However, if understand this deep approval experientially, we are compelled to live for the God who extends it.

Living life on the roller coaster is living bound by the chains of an old life, a life dominated by the “values” of a broken world, not the Kingdom of God. However, as a follower of Christ, there is a new life given, and we are invited to live with full confidence that we are 100% valuable, 100% of the time. What freedom comes as we embrace our God-given value! Get off that roller coaster and fight to stay off. You weren’t created to live there. peace on ya,

bb