There’s this story my mom tells about when I was in kindergarten and was racing some neighborhood kids. Per usual, the race took off and I was in first place. Big smile on my face as I knew I was about to finish in 1st. The winner. The best. But soon, a kid started gaining on me and he before I knew it, he passed me. My mom recalls vividly watching my face change as I noticed I was about to be beat. Second place. First loser. Right?
So what do I do? Rather than graciously accepting my 2nd place finish, I purposely tripped myself and fell.
Sound strange? Look at it this way. If I trip, I don’t have to admit that I am slower. If I fall, I have an EXCUSE for why I didn’t accomplish something.
I am a goal crushing, accomplish driven, success defining person.
In my eyes, failure is not an option. I will lower the bar before I fail. Failure means I am less than. Failure shows others that I don’t have it all together, I can’t do it myself, I don’t always fit the “performance” I put on.
I heard on a podcast “Who are you when you put the paint brush down?”
Who are you when you put the accomplishments aside? Put the successes aside? Don’t mention your profession? Don’t mention everything you’ve made for yourself? Who are you?
You, my friend, are a child of God. You are fully and completely loved. Nothing you did, nothing you can do, nothing you can’t do, can change that. It can’t become more the more work you put in. It can’t become less the less work you put in. You are just that. Let your soul rest in that.
Quit the performance. Put down the paint brush. Your worth is not in your works. It’s in your Father.
Ephesians 2:8-9
We neither make nor save ourselves. God does all the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for] us to do, work we had better be doing.