Loved More than Enough

So he tells us to seek first the kingdom of God. Doesn't say seek security, doesn't say seek fairness, he doesn't say seek that victory as competitive as we sometimes can be. He says seek first god's kingdom, god's way of ordering the world. And god has a way of ordering the world around love and mercy and justice and faithfulness. [00:58:37] (33 seconds)  #SeekKingdomFirst

And then comes that line that reframes everything. This is for us professional worriers. Are you not much more valuable than they? Aren't you way more valuable to God than the birds? The Greek word for value carries weight, its worth, its importance, its sign its significance. Jesus is grounding identity not in performance, but in our relationship with god. [00:56:23] (36 seconds)  #IdentityInGodNotPerformance

We are precious to God. We are God's beloved, and that more than medals, more than trophies, more than championships, that is what carries us through all the many seasons of our life, knowing that we are loved, loved more than enough, a love that sustains us on our toughest days, a love that sustains us in the hardest seasons of our life. [01:01:13] (29 seconds)  #LovedMoreThanTrophies

That's how we play the long game. That's how we play the long game of faith. We claim we claim and know that we are a beloved child of God, that we are loved from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet. Because the God who feeds the birds, clothes the lilies, will never be careless with you. God won't be careless with me. [01:00:45] (28 seconds)  #PlayTheLongGameOfFaith

So here is the promise. When we orient our lives around God's love, everything else finds its rightful place. Not that everything becomes easy, not that controversy disappears, but our center holds. Our faith core is real, and it doesn't change because the most important part of our life is not whether we win or lose, it is whether we trust in god. [00:59:09] (31 seconds)  #CenteredInGodsLove

The word therefore, that's interesting. It connects this teaching to what came before. If our treasure is in heaven, if our heart is rooted in God, then worry doesn't have to rule over us. The Greek word for worry, it literally means to be divided, or I like how it's put this way, it means to be pulled apart. [00:53:48] (28 seconds)  #TreasureHeavenNotWorry

Sometimes the outcome that we see, it just doesn't feel right or it doesn't feel just. So here's the question. What do we do when that is our reality? Because here's the truth. Life outside the athletic arena works much in the same way. We can do our job well and still be overlooked. We can raise our children faithfully and still worry about the future. We can act with integrity and still watch someone else cut corners and advance. And if our own sense of self worth depends on outcomes, if it depends on only us winning, we will constantly be unsettled. We will not be at peace within ourselves. [00:52:17] (57 seconds)  #WorthBeyondOutcomes

Life doesn't always feel fair. Sometimes it feels like someone gets a higher score, and they didn't earn it. Someone sometimes it feels like the judging was subjective, and it was. Sometimes it feels like somebody bent the rules. Sometimes it feels like we did everything right and still we didn't get the medal. We didn't get the trophy. We didn't get the win. And when that happens, and it's happened to all of us at one time or another, it seems like our body's response. Something inside of us just tightens up. We feel it because fairness matters. Integrity matters. Honor matters. [00:49:32] (53 seconds)  #FairnessAndIntegrityMatter