Worth This World Can’t Give

Fitness Center ~ Pilates ~ Kickboxing ~ Spin ~ Juice Bar ~ Hair ~ Nails ~ Laser Surgery ~ Brow Bar ~ Wax ~ Make Up ~ Anti-aging ~ Luxury Vehicle Rentals ~ Designer Active Wear ~ Fine Jewelry.

Every shop front window and awning of the palm tree lined streets of the California beach town I visited sent the collective message: You Are What You Look Like! Or, it could be said: Beauty Is Everything!

So when I was stopped by a salesman standing outside a luxury skin care boutique I gladly took his sample. But the next thing I knew I had been lured inside for a little dab of something more – the miracle erasing cream for fine lines.

“You have a little problem around your eyes!” he said. And an instant later the wrinkles visibly disappeared.

I have to admit if it weren’t for the hefty price tag I would be all in. I already feel self-conscious about what the makeup man drew my attention to, and I am all too aware of aging’s effect on the body. To have it highlighted by the signposts all around me stirred a little negative self-talk.

Ironically the very topic I was in town to speak on was: Finding our Secure Identity in Christ. At the conference the topic was geared toward how it pertain to teens, but the same reorienting gospel truth of who they are in Christ is exactly what I needed to preach to myself about who I am in Christ to dispel the lies.

How quickly we can spiral down the path to believing we are less than, or not good enough, according to what the world says. Just one look in the magnifying mirror begged me to believe the lie. So though the world says our worth rises or falls based on how we look, God says the things of this world aren’t big enough or valuable enough to give us worth.

How young (or old) we look, how fit we are, what size we wear, how great our wardrobe, what we drive, where we live, or vacation, may make us appear good in the eyes of others, but none of those things will ever fully satisfy. We will be left perpetually insecure, always trying to attain and sustain what we think is the perfect standard.

Even knowing this though, we still strive for and evaluate ourselves and others according to these worldly standards of beauty and success. But why? Why do we believe the lie that our worth is tied to our appearance, when in God’s economy our worth is unchanging and secure because of Christ’s worth?!

Reason: Idolatry!

Like Adam and Eve in the garden we exchange the truth about God for a lie and turn to the created rather than the Creator to give us what only He can.  Whatever we turn to looking for security and worth, whatever we worship as if it is “life” is idolatry.

What this world woos us to worship is self. How we appear, how we are perceived, how we think we should be (how we think our kids should be) drives what we do, how we invest our time, our money, what we talk about, and what consumes our thoughts. Just consider the running commentary in your head on any given day.

But what if instead of dwelling on where we fail to meet the perfect standards of this world, we think on the One who met God’s perfect standard for us?  Because of Jesus’ work and worth we are clothed in his righteous robes and nothing compares to the unfading glory of those robes.

Hidden in Christ, you are completely secure. Hidden in Christ, you radiate his unsurpassing beauty. True worth, true beauty that no miracle cream of this world can ever match.

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