People with whom I work are probably sick of hearing me talk about their identities in Christ. But I find it is such a foundational piece of living that it must be discussed often. We also have been so steeped in lies that the truth of who we are in Christ seems laughable. We go about trying to prove we have value and worth through our productivity, our kindness, or some other circumstance or behavior. But this puts things in the wrong order. We do not love others or achieve success (however that is measured) in order to prove we have value—we must first understand we have value, and then we can behave as one who is loved.

Sometimes we try to use circumstances to prove our worth. We look around at what we have achieved, how productive we are, how we define success and if we have achieved some level of it. This is then supposed to help us understand that we have value. But when we place our value on these things, we end up with two problems. One is that we cannot control a lot of our circumstances, and if we struggle with physical health, financial difficulty, or some other external factor, we can end up deciding we have no worth because we cannot perform in our circumstances as we used to. The other problem is that once we attain whatever level of success we have determined will give us value, there is usually another step to take to keep increasing that value. There is no ending point. If we attain education, power, money or status, there is always another level that we have to keep pushing towards.