“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?” Jesus said. “Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7).
We are worthy as we are – no matter what the advertisements say.
One of the books that saved me from a people-pleasing hole was Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones. “It is important to remember we are not the poem,” she writes. “The power is always in the act of writing. Come back to that again and again and again. Don’t get caught in the admiration of your poems.”
For me, the power is in the act of writing. For you, it might be running, baking, or mowing the lawn. Is there something you’re “caught in the admiration of”? Are you working a job you hate because you like the fancy title? Do you keep bringing your friends’ favorite cookies to the barbecue when you want to make a lemon tart?
Remember, you are not the poem or the vice president of whatever. You are you. “You” was always good enough.
This message is excerpted from “You don’t have to be good” by Sarah Carson in the July 2022 Café online magazine. Today we commemorate Nathan Söderblom, Bishop of Uppsala, 1931.
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