This season, a lot of us were hit with the message, "make yourself relevant!"
It's what we see when we close our eyes; what haunts us, offline or online. Right now, so many people feel pressured and are jumping on any and every train just to be seen as "relevant". In all these though, do not forget that the cares of this world, and it's pleasures as well, are undeniably ephemeral.
Am I saying do not want to be relevant on earth or work towards thriving even now? Not at all.
But I am reminding you today, that whether you believe it or not, what matters most in life is what God validates. What He sees as important.
So, while you're, "chasing your dreams", make sure it's the one he laid within your heart.
More than anyone else, He wants us to prosper—in this life, and in the next. Don't get this twisted. God loves you more than you could ever love yourself. He even loves you when you can't love yourself.
There must have been times you got tired of you. When you wondered how someone could be so off.
Times when you cursed your inactiveness and wished you could shred out all your flaws (maybe with a little bit of hair or skin).
Times when you looked at yourself, and all you wanted to do was grieve.
Even then, He has always loved you. Never stopped, never will.
There must have been times you got tired of you. When you wondered how someone could be so off.
So, when you think of all that, in whose hands do you think your life would go better?
Whose advice should you trust most of all when it comes to issues that determine the course of your life, and even those that do not.
What goals should you give more attention to, if not the one He stirs your heart to see?
He wants to hold your hand to face every fear.
He wants to remind you of things forgotten, and rekindle passions lost.
And the beauty of it all? He won't judge you while He does so. Even His chastisement is an overwhelming spring of love. I tell you this without doubting because I've been there.
I know sometimes, you get worried.
You feel like the world is passing you by. It's like a, 'dog eat dog' world out there, and you feel like the lamb you're following is going to get you both killed😅. You're scared. You want to be relevant. You want your voice to matter. You need to matter.
I understand this feeling of wanting to be validated. Perhaps even more than I understand any other. But I've also been learning to not lie to myself anymore.
All the validation in the world will never fill your craving for worth. You must face the world with an assurance of your worth already deeply locked within your soul. Because *no one* is going to keep filling you up with the validation you so crave.
Well, no one but God anyways.
He placed in you this longing for acceptance. He did! So when you feel it tearing your insides to shred, why don't you direct it back at him? It doesn't matter how you want to do it. You could be angry, confused, weary or simply aching so badly you've forgotten how to breathe.
You could be lost and so, so confused. You could be feeling left out like no one else could ever understand the quagmire that is your mind.
And perhaps, worst of all—because it's the one you've been trying to avoid—you could be scared that God doesn't too.
Yes. I've hit a sore spot haven't I?
You could be worried that he's so "kingdom conscious", he won't even be bothered with your desires or needs; that he wouldn't care about the vessel, only the treasure.
You might have never dared say or even think it out to yourself. But you know you feel this way. It hits you in the chest everytime, and you wonder even when you don't want to,
"What's in it for me too?"
Well, I'm not here to tell you that there are benefits in store for you. Or that the story revolves around you, and God's going to make all of your dreams come true.
Because it doesn't revolve around you. When you accept Christ as Lord, the story doesn't revolve around you. It does around him. And I am leaving you with no illusion.
You my friend, are one part of a whole.
But beloved, you're so much more than just a part. It's the beautiful irony of being in Christ.
You're a part, and yet to him, everything. You're a part he wouldn't give up for anything. A jewel in his treasure chest that's full of so many others, and yet loved so wholly, so completely, so intimately, that he knows every portion ever cleaved; that he's familiar with every single sunlit glint.
You're the part in a never ending symphony that would leave the song bereft and silent at one of its many crucial peaks.
You're the crescendo or not-cresecendo (sorry, I'm not musically inclined that way), that He doesn't want to have to do without.
You're not the center of the universe, but oh you're special. You are so special.
And I want you to realise this. Heck, I want me to realise this.
And He wants us to.
He wants us to see that we matter, even while we begin to live like there's someone who matters more.
It's a relationship where we forget ourselves and look at him, but he never forgets us. Ever.
You're a part, and yet to him, everything. You're a part he wouldn't give up for anything. A jewel in his treasure chest that's full of so many others, and yet loved so wholly, so completely, so intimately, that he knows every portion ever cleaved; that he's familiar with every single sunlit glint.
I can't count the number of times I thought some wants frivolous, and yet God brought them to being anyways.
And I can't count the number of times I huffed and raged for something I thought I needed, but I didn't get it.
Why? It's because there's a bigger picture. One that involves what's best for you, and still somehow in that mind-boggling way, also sees others too.
I can't explain it but just know this:
Jesus loves you in a way that's true. And the only way to experience this Love's depth and overwhelming breadth, is when you submit to him.
He's not gonna tell you to squash those desires and expectations. He's just going to have you surrender them, and be content in what he offers, *because you trust him, and believe his way is best.*
Brood on this, honey. For you are loved by an everlasting love, and holding you up, are two steady, never-ending arms.
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