celebrating irrelevancy

As I am closing in on the end of my sabbatical, I am musing on the theme of being irrelevant.  This has been one of the many internal battles that I am learning to wrestle with and embrace instead of dread.

The reason for this is simple:

I have nothing (1 Corinthians 4:7) ...

I can do nothing (John 15:5) ...

I am nothing (1 Corinthians 15:10) ... apart from Christ!

However, in Christ,

I have all things (1 Corinthians 3:22-23) ...

I can go through every circumstance (Philippians 4:13) ...

I am new (2 Corinthians 5:17).

We, humanity and I, tend to struggle between too low a self-esteem and a too high self esteem.  Both by the way are rooted in the same soil of pride.  It is in this soil we try to find something valuable in us, about us, around us, or through us to give us a sense of self-worth.

Christianity provides a new way of seeing.  It matters not what others think of me or even what I think of myself. There is a third way which only Christianity provides.  It is how God sees me, 1 Corinthians 4:4-5.  "It is only His opinion that counts." — Timothy Keller in The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness.

And what is God's opinion?  Here are two beginning points:  Romans 8:1, 31-39.

This is where freedom is.

Good night,

doug