Never before has life been so quantifiable.  Teens can actually put numbers to how well they are liked by others (Facebook and Twitter followers) or how what they do is received or how their latest new purchase strikes others (instragram likes).  It’s no different when we come to how many people read our blog, like our posts, watch our YouTube videos, engage in our fundraising requests and read our book.   It’s in church too.  It’s quantifiable how many seats are filled, the latest building project in the works, how many converts have been made, etc…   And every time we weigh ourselves on our bathroom scales, there’s a lurking quantifiable value trying to tell us something we’re not.   It’s all about numbers.   And without even our awareness these numbers like a stealthy leach secretly attach themselves to suck some of our feeling of value. 

At the root is a craving for significance.  We want to know we are valued.  We’ve heard that we are to get our value in Christ and we give our whole-hearted head shake to this truth, but we also want to know we are valued by others.  We want to know our life has meant something on this earth.

Daily we are bombarbed with thousands of messages that challenge our value.  Are you married?  Do you have a bomb-shell wife or a handsome husband?  Are your children Harvard scholars and saints of God?  Do you have a nice house?  Do you make good money?  Do you have an important position at work?  What social injustice are you engaged in to change the world?  Are you skinny enough?  Beautiful enough?  Smart enough?  Commercials breed discontent faster than wild bunnies.

Personally I’ve never found it to be a one-time fight.  This battle to know who we are through and in Christ.    Sometimes I win and sometimes I lose.  Perhaps this is why the “new command” Jesus gave is to “love one another.”  Because when we do,  we help give someone a victory.  Twice today I received an email that encouraged my heart.   It was far better than 1000 likes on any post.  Thank you Christine and Lorrain.  You helped give me victory today.

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