I Am A Useless Individual David FieldJanuary 7, 2010
In my life, I have sometimes let people down, sometimes treated people unfairly, and done some things I am not proud to repeat. When I look at my life in this way, I consider myself a pretty miserable human being. When I consider all my faults and deficiencies, I seem to suffer from low self-esteem, which causes me to be self-absorbed, and then I come across as egocentric. In thinking about all this, it seems that I am of very little use at all. Is there any of you who feel like I do sometimes?
But when I ask God who I am, he tells me my identity is totally in the one decision I have made. My identity as far as he is concerned is not the miserable person the enemy, or other miserable people tell me I am. My identity is not what others think I am based on their experiences with me in the past. These are the people who hold things against me forever. These people who don’t allow for changes can take place. These people who don’t allow you to redeem yourself. They have got you as guilty forever. None of my past matters to God. What matters to him is that salvation was offered, and I made the wise decision, so he calls me wise. It is cut and dry.
On the other hand, all my life a lot of people have let me down, treated me unfairly, and done things against me they should be ashamed of. Who is better than me? Each of us in the living of our lives is faced with different challenges. Life is not a level playing ground. Some are born with beauty. Some are born with athletic ability. Some are born with a personality that everyone is attracted to. Some are born in money. Some are born in loving families. Some are not. Life is far from fair. So who is to say they are better than another, or to place one above another? Did you live their life? No one takes the same test, so there can be no comparison, in our understanding. It is so easy to love the lovely. It is so easy to look up to those who are blessed with charisma, and grace. For each of you engaging in that behavior, I call you shallow, and superficial, looking at the outward. It is like an ignorant and useless high school popularity game. Oh, he is cool; he is on the football team. Oh, she is cool; she is on the cheer-leading quad. This is the same foolish pecking order thinking as kids in school. That high school jock did nothing to earn the body he was born with, so why is he given the honor? What if he were given the body of the retarded kid? What could he do with that? When is the retarded kid given credit by others for doing the best that he can? God is the only one who can judge fairly because he is the only one that knows everything, all the details and challenges of your life. So for anyone who thinks of themselves as better than anyone else, you had better think again, or stop thinking about that altogether. You are trying to put yourself in the place of God in being someone else’s judge. You are not God. God hates it when someone tries to take his place.
If you think you are useless, stop thinking like that and start to think like God thinks. God is all knowing. God’s thoughts are the correct thoughts. If he says you are lovely, why would you argue? His opinion of you is the ONLY opinion that really matters, above even your own. What are you doing with what God has given you? God offered you the gift of life. What are you doing with it? Make the right choice, and validate your life. Choose God. God created you and he is the only one that cares about you to the greatest degree. It doesn’t matter to him how cool you are, how interesting you are, how smart and sophisticated you are, or any other trivial human attribute. None of those things carry an ounce of weight with him. There is only one thing that carries any value with him, and that is if you have chosen him or not. If you have chosen him, then he has chosen you. You are welcomed and accepted as a valued and esteemed member to the winning team.