WORTHY

I just finished my internship for the summer. One of the last things that I had to do was design a training/ re-evaluation meeting for the youth group leaders at my church. While we were at the meeting a very interesting question was raised, What makes youth group different from any other event that your child is involved in? Today youth are going fifty different directions. I remembered back to when I was in youth group at my church and how I hated going. Loathed. But we'll get to why that was the case in a minute. So as we were brain storming for an answer to this question a lot of people were throwing out the obvious - teaching tool, way to get students connected to the church, etc. But my mind was tossing around a slightly different question What makes the CHURCH different? All summer I've been exploring this idea of LOVED. The idea that we are all loved, even if we can't always see it. We are first and foremost loved by Christ, but then we as Christians are to show others this love. LOVED has become my reminder to some special people in my life that I love them not for what they can do for me, but because of who they are - a child of God. It is also my self-reminder that I need to be showing this love and showing others what it means to be the BELOVED.
So I'm sitting in this meeting trying to figure out how the two questions and LOVED relate to one another and it struck me. Church is different because it is where you are told that you are WORTHY. Not because of how much money you make or what your house looks like or how big your family is but because you are a child of God. The same reasoning behind LOVED. Youth group, as an extension of the church, should be conveying this same message. That our students are WORTHY not because they can get a basketball through a hoop or for what grades they get on tests, but because they are precious in God's eyes. When the people in the congregation start to identity themselves as WORTHY and LOVED then their eyes are opened to see others in the same manner. And by worthy I'm not referring to arrogance that demands attention, but rather seeing yourself humbly and gratefully as a son or daughter of the King. A King who took what was worthless and sinful and made you whole and worthy by the price of his blood. THIS is the Family of God, reminding and affirming to each other who they truly are.
Unfortunately, that isn't the story in most churches today. I stated before that I loathed going to youth group. To be honest, it went beyond that. I hated going to Sunday School, church services, or any church event for that matter. At those events I was taunted and ridiculed and told that I wasn't beautiful. I was called names that no little girl should be called. And the lies that came from people who were supposed to be my brothers and sisters in Christ, clouded out any perception I had of WORTHY and LOVED. Years of damage were done because the church became just another place where we attacked other people because we forgot who we were in Christ's eyes and became insecure. WORTHY and LOVED don't leave room for insecurities that lead to the demeaning of others.
I think the church as a whole is also scared of the message of WORTHY and LOVED. In my almost twenty-one years of being raised in the church, I have never heard the message from the pulpit or in a class that I was worthy. More often then not we hear the salvation message preached time and time again. We are the scum of the earth who don't deserve God but he came and died for us anyway. Now we can go to heaven, but we still don't deserve him. This is true we don't DESERVE God, but that doesn't mean that Christ's blood doesn't have power to TRANSFORM us. I also do not, I repeat DO NOT, think God looks at us as the scum of the earth. I actually think God weeps when we see ourselves this way. In this messed up attempt to remind us how Holy God is we try to distance ourselves as the church even more from him by saying what crap we are. God doesn't need our man made ideals and distance to tell him how holy he is. When we live as Holy people it reflects a Holy God. When we praise God with not only our words but with actions of love. When we see what God sees, a WORTHY and LOVED people we will treat each other like that more, thus reflecting back to God. Seriously, what makes us think that the message that "you suck and deserve to burn in Hell, but Jesus over here will make you clean, but we'll still keep you in your place by reminding you that you suck" is attractive? Or that it's even the right message? People don't need to be told that, everyone already knows they aren't good enough. Christians and non-Christians alike. It's why we strive for success or dive into addictions, to try to escape the ever present idea in our mind that we are horrible. Isn't the true message "Christ died for you and you see this way you see yourself. That's NOT how he sees you at all. He wants you to return to him when you fall and apologize with a pure heart, but you cannot do anything to make God love you any less. His sacrifice has made you WORTHY and LOVED if only you can accept it"
As part of the Church, what do YOU stand for as an individual? Do you see yourself as WORTHY and LOVED? Or have you shied away from your identity? Do you then see others through the eyes that Christ sees you? Or are you one of the people silently killing your brother and sisters' souls? Are ready to rethink what makes the Church the Church? It's not rules that strive for holiness alone. It's the heartbeat of Christ showing that he is alive in our midst.
Just remember, YOU are WORTHY and LOVED. It's the brand mark on your soul.