your self-worth = your performance + other's opinions about you

Ironically, last night I thought of two great subjects for this week’s blog post, but do you think I can remember either of them this morning. Absolutely not. I need to learn to write my ideas down before they fly away, and I’m left without a single thing to write about. Well, I must carry on. This one’s gonna be a shot in the dark, people. Bear with me, I’m sure it’ll go somewhere good in the end. At least I hope so.

Ahhaa, just as I was writing the above, one of the ideas flew back into my head. I’m learning that it pays to write random thoughts until my brain can finally grasp onto something that might be worth sharing.

The Search for Significance. It’s a book, written by Robert S. McGee. I have only read this book twice in my lifetime, but it has changed my viewpoint drastically. This is a book that was recommended to me by a counselor I met with shortly after I had been diagnosed. Ten years later, I find myself re-reading it, realizing it’s as applicable for me today as it was back then.  

While he didn’t know it at the time, this counselor was giving me the assignment of a lifetime. It was exactly what I needed to learn.

You see, after reading this book I realized that there was a certain lie I had believed for most of my life. A lie that made me miserable in so many ways:

My Self-worth = My performance + Others’ Opinions [About Me]

At first glance, it may seem like an inconsequential equation, maybe even nonsense. But if you’re anything like me you come to realize that this statement rings with a whole lot of deceit.

One of the topics I had discussed with my counselor was my propensity to base my self-worth on my performance and others’ opinions about me. When my counselor released me from meeting with him, he encouraged me to read Search. At the time the book’s subject was exactly what I needed to hear. And ten years later, I must confess, its lessons are just as valuable today.

When McGee writes about this topic of building our self worth on the approval of others or on our performance, he demonstrates that we’re missing the whole point of our existence. 

We are not valuable because of others’ good opinions. Nor are we valuable because we perform well. Our true value is based on what God says about us. We are His prized possession, so precious to Him that He would sacrifice everything; even the Son He loved most, to bring us back to Him.  

Does this nonsensical equation consume your thoughts as much as they did mine?

Your self-worth = your performance + others’ opinions [about you].

Stop believing it. This lie will have you chasing your tail the rest of your days leaving you exhausted and hopeless. Throw off this lie that your self-worth = your performance + others’ opinions [about you]. It’s a formula for disaster. It will never leave you satisfied. 

To quote from McGee’s book, “Our value is not dependent on our ability to earn the fickle acceptance of people, but rather, its true source is the love and acceptance of God. He created us. He alone knows how to fulfill all of our needs.”

 

Amen, to that brother. Amen to that.

https://www.google.com/#q=search+for+significance