March 19, 2011

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."  I Peter 2:9

 

Long Summer days in Claypool, Indiana, were spent playing sandlot baseball. We had a vacant lot just west of town that had was surrounded on two sides by a fence. That became our ballpark and if it was a week day it was game day!

 

The fence surrounding the lot was our home run fence and we keep meticulous statistics over the entire Summer - the number of home runs we hit, the number of runs batted in, doubles, triples, and batting average. We were legends in our own minds!

 

After a few Summers when we grew big enough that the fence was too reachable, we all started batting left-handed to put some challenge back into hitting homers. By the time we mastered the left side of the plate, some inconsiderate person bought the lot and built a house on it! Sometimes progress stinks!

 

Game day began about mid-morning as we gathered with gloves and bats and baseballs in tow. The dramatic moment was when we would choose sides. It would be the two biggest, oldest and best players as captains charged with picking among the rest of us also rans to determine the teams. As other guys were picked and I wasn't, my sense of significance suffered. I was never the last guy picked but neither was I the first. Being wired the way I am, the lower I was chosen the more motivated I became to prove I mattered. But that simple childhood act of choosing up sides for sandlot ballgames was a raw and revealing way of exposing who really mattered and who didn't. Your significance in the "pack" was on display! There was no place to hide.

 

God built into you and me a strong need for significance. We want to matter. We need to know our lives make a difference. Therefore, who we chose to determine our sense of significance is a game-changer. In a perfect world, that is one the primary roles of parents to build significance and security into the psyche of their children. When you matter to mon and dad, you don't care as much where you get chosen in the line up.

 

Even more important than the significance given you by your parents is realizing how much you matter to God. Ultimately, your significance will rise or fall on understanding your value to Him. And, there is good news! The Bible says that He chose you first! You are a first-round draft choice in His opinion! You are so significant to Him that He traded His Son's life for yours!

 

Are you struggling with the fear of not mattering? Do you live with the insecurity of feeling insignificant? Have you allowed the wrong people to decide your worth?

 

Get your heart and mind around this - "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."  I Peter 2:9

You matter! He says so! Let His opinion matter most to you! Let Him matter more than anyone or anything else and feel the fear of insignificance melt away.