Measuring Up

Three words we oftentimes use without really considering their meaning - status, esteem, and value. Status: The social or professional position, condition, or standing to which varying degrees of responsibility, privilege, and esteem are attached. Esteem: Regard highly or favorably, with respect or admiration; to consider as of a certain value. Value: Worth, merit, or importance; to consider with respect to worth, excellence, usefulness, or importance. We place "value" on certain things, don't we? In considering someone, or something, we determine some "importance" or "degree of excellence" which we will "assign" to the individual or object. Sometimes the individual or object is held in a higher, or lower, esteem based on the value we "assign". In turn, we often equate "position" or "standing" based on our determination of "assigned value". It is not unlikely that we have even assigned "value" to certain actions of others, and even ourselves. We often do this without much thought - giving, or attaching, some sense of "worth" to various actions and their resulting outcomes without much conscious thought. The danger - we often assign value based on our "interpretation" of the importance or excellence of the action to us at that moment in time. The "value" we assign today may not be the importance we will hold with regard to the same action in the future. Our "determining" of merit can fluctuate depending upon mood, circumstance, and even the individual we are considering. When it comes to considering our OWN value, we often are the most "fickle" or "fluctuating" in "assigning" value!

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion. (Philippians 2:5-8)

Jesus took a different "tact" to determining value. He had "equal" status with God the Father. No amount of "doing" or "manipulating" would make that status any better. He already had pretty "awesome" status! Yet, he did not "cling to" the status he had - he did not let it define his actions. Jesus, equal with God himself, did not think so highly of himself that he was unwilling or unable to see the need of humanity and then take on the form of humanity in order to accomplish the remedy to that need. He could have said, "Hey, I am holy! I cannot rub elbows with those sinners! You just don't understand how important my position is in the scheme of things in this world!" We really should view the "worth" or "value" of the actions of both ourselves and others by the example of Christ. Do we exhibit a certain ability to be selfless - willing to consider others ahead of our present position? Jesus was able to separate his "status" from his "actions". He laid aside "status" in order to "act" in a way totally contrary to his status - laying down his deity to take on the position of a slave. If you were the owner of the manor, to take on the position of a slave suggested a huge transition in "status" or "worth" in the eyes of those who beheld this action. I wonder what we could accomplish if we took our eyes off of "status" and began to see the "worth" of another as more valuable than our own personal "status"?

He set aside privileges. With "status" comes privilege - there is some resulting "benefit" to status, is there not? For example, you can buy tickets to a concert, but when you get the "all-access" tickets, you get to meet the artists, rub elbows with the band, and almost be present in every action they are undertaking. There is a benefit to the "status" of having the "all-access" tickets. Jesus was able to separate the "privileges" of his position - taking on the form of humankind. This probably meant he had to deal with the stuff humans deal with - like hunger, emotions, being tired, and aching feet from long hours standing on them. He could have continued to luxuriate in the "status" of being "equal to God", but he laid that down those privileges in order to experience humanity. I don't know about you, but this suggests a whole lot to me about the "value" Jesus gives to each of us! He was willing to "associate" with our pain and need in order to meet it! Jesus shows us the real "worth" of individual is not in "claiming" his own rights, but in laying them down. This is the meaning of him living a "selfless and obedient" life. To live "selflessly" one must begin to think more of another than they do of themselves. To live obediently suggests a willingness to submit to an authority higher than yourself. Jesus not only laid down his "claims" for his "rights" as "equal to God", but he also was willing to submit to the authority of his Father God. If you have a hard time figuring out how one who is "equal to God" actually "submits to God", you are probably not alone. I think it centers on this whole "value", "worth" and "esteem" issue. He was willing to take on whatever needed to be done in order to connect with and meet the needs of humanity - selflessly, without falling back on his "rights" or "status". I don't know about you, but I think I attach "value" or "worth" to other people's actions all the time. I even find myself "comparing" their actions to my own - seeing if they measure up or are actually "better" than mine! Do you ever do that? If so, I think you and I might just need to take a lesson or two from Jesus - remembering it is not in the "status" we obtain where we are "defined", but in the selfless obedience of considering our "status" less important than the needs of another! Just sayin!

Going berserk?

It was Thomas Edison who reminded us, "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." The truth of the matter is that most of us would rather avoid the 'overall days' and just enjoy the 'lounge wear' days! We want the 'good stuff', but we don't want to put in the effort to actually 'get the goods'. Opportunity is when the timing is favorable - the conditions are met. How many times do we allow favorable timing and conditions to just pass us by? I think if we stop to consider that one, we may just say we have allowed opportunity to pass us by way too frequently without paying even the slightest attention to it as it was. Why? We were not 'positioned' to 'pounce'. The cat who sits still, considering the lizard skittering across the wall isn't duped into slumber by the breeze gently bending the tall grass. He is paying attention - positioning himself to pounce. Opportunity will not pass him by! He is ready and willing. Opportunity requires readiness, but it also requires the will within to act when the opportunity comes our way.

Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. Let Your good Spirit lead me on a straight path. (Psalm 143:10)

Why is it that some of us just don't act upon the opportunities that are presented to us? I think it is because we have not determined to grasp them. Our mind says we are, but our heart betrays us because as scripture says it best, "Man's spirit is willing, but the body does not have the power to do it." (Matthew 26:41) Our spirit is willing, but our flesh is weak. Our mind tells us one thing - our body betrays the true intent of our heart. God reminds us that our 'will' needs to be taught - it needs to learn how to respond more reliably, with intent and purpose. This is why he sent his Spirit - to act as a teacher. We don't become ready to pounce until we are in the right position. The cat who is sitting way up in the tree, or on top of the roof, isn't ready to pounce on the lizard at the base of the wall. By the time he pounces, the lizard will have scurried away!

If we want to be ready for opportunity when it comes our way, we need to learn to recognize it. Then we have to learn to be patient. I have been in the right place, but the timing was not correct. There I was, positioned and ready to pounce, but the timing was not right. If you want to know the truth here, I pounced anyway! Why? I was there - the opportunity was in front of me - so I just did it. The outcome was a little different than what God intended, though. The timing is one thing we don't always wait for when we are looking for the opportunity. We are afraid it will pass us by if we aren't quick enough to pounce. Remember this - - - position is the one thing we can control, timing is the one thing God controls. Position yourself and be ready - then wait. Uh-oh, I just made a few of us uncomfortable with that last statement. We don't like to wait - we imagine the opportunity will pass us by if we aren't pouncing all the time. 

A cat who is pouncing all the time, at every opportunity he sees, isn't really accomplishing much. Don't believe me? Watch a cat go berserk over a laser pointer dot traversing the floor or wall! He is absolutely beside himself pursuing that red dot! Do you know what it means to be berserk? It means that the behavior reveals deranged thought - wild, crazed, frenzied actions that really make little to no sense. Anytime we act on impulse rather than thinking things through - observing for the right place and the right time - we are going to act a little 'deranged'. Our actions will really not make a whole lot of sense. Just sayin!