Transcript

Great and small exist in life. And you see that all over Scripture, right? You see the attractive and the unattractive and the wealthy and the poor. And the supposedly successful or famous versus those who go unnoticed. And so I think sometimes we do a disservice when we don't acknowledge that there are differences, that there are strengths and weaknesses, and there's great and small in the human exchange.

However, the difficulty is who gives value in the midst of that? And here's where we're all tempted to find identity and meaning and value outside of the Lord. And when we do that, we will always be misguided. We will always be filled with insecurities, or shame, or even maybe a God complex. Instead of saying, “Lord, you are the one that defines me. And help me to see myself as you see me, which means I will acknowledge my weaknesses or flaws. It also means I'll see that those things do not define my value or worth.” That worth is found simply in the fact that God loves us and made us. And that's what perpetually has to reorient us. And that's really hard in our culture for sure, especially when you regularly have images in your face telling you what you should or shouldn't be. So those voices are loud and demanding, and we've got to learn to hear the Lord's voice in the midst of that and allow that to be what defines us.