Consider, for a moment, all the good you've ever done. All the compliments you've ever received. All the good reviews you've ever gotten from a supervisor. All the money that FMSC was able to use to feed kids because of your work. All the times you drove a friend to the airport even though it was out of your way, or you got up on a Sunday to volunteer at church. All the cans and bottles you've recycled. Think of how much good you've done in your life.
Now consider your sin. All the times you said something unkind about a person who was not in the room. All the times you lied to get out of an obligation. All the times you judged a colleague for not doing their job perfectly. All the times you spoke in anger to someone who needed your love. All the times you wasted resources that could have helped somebody in need. All the promises you've broken. Think of how much sin pervades your life.
If you're like me, you spend a lot of your time stacking up your good works and your bad, along with all the praise and criticism you've ever received, and you measure the stacks against each other like Monopoly money to try and determine how much you are worth. You become your own personal stock market, fluctuating minute by minute as your circumstances shift and your mood changes. Did I figure out a way to save my coworkers some time on a project? My worth goes up. Did I forget to put a meeting on Andy's calendar? My worth goes down.
We do the same thing as an organization. Did FMSC get another four-star rating from Charity Navigator? We're more valuable. Did our delivery efficiency rate drop? We're less valuable. Did at least one kid get to eat today because of FMSC? Did at least one kid die today because we didn't produce enough meals?
I think we all know that measuring our worth by our perceived successes or failures is a fool's game, but it's one that is very difficult to stop playing. It's a very human thing to want to find our worth in ourselves—in our beauty, our intelligence, our humor, our skills, our wealth, our righteousness. We balance the good and the bad on opposite sides of a scale and hope that the truth of ourselves is somewhere in the middle—that our value can be controlled, measured, achieved, improved...or even lost.
The great miracle and mercy of our lives as Christians, of course, is that this is not the truth. Ephesians 2 says, "Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast."
Our worth has been declared, not earned. We can neither create or destroy our own worth any more than we can create or destroy matter and energy. And I think most of us, if not all of us, know this with our minds. We've read the Bible, we've heard the sermons, we know what we SHOULD think about our worth. But it takes more than knowledge to bring faith to life. For that, we need to look outside ourselves.
I once attended a spiritual renewal weekend that was staffed by a huge crew of volunteers who were there to take care of the weekend attendees. Every time somebody served me a meal, or held a door for me, or cleaned the restroom, or led a song, if I said, "Thank you," they didn't say, "You're welcome." They didn't say, "No problem," or "My pleasure," or "You bet." They looked me in the eyes and said, "You're worth it." No matter how many times I heard that phrase, casually dropped into the middle of a conversation, it blew me away. The power of "You're worth it" is incredible. Think of how many times we say, "Thank you" to each other throughout our work days. Imagine if we began this practice here at FMSC, of saying to each other, "You're worth it." What could that do for us? Imagine how our attitudes could be shaped if we began declaring to each other that we have infinite and unchanging worth because we belong to the Lord. It might make a small difference; it might make all the difference.
Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, which is commonly a time for Christians to take on an extra spiritual discipline to help focus our thoughts on Jesus' journey to the cross. This will be one of mine, and I invite anyone who wants to, to join me. Because I want to tell YOU that you are worthy of my service and my care, that YOU deserve to have joy and comfort, that YOU do not have to fear judgment or rejection. It is by grace that you have been saved. You are worth it. Amen.
