This is a harsh list. But if we look at ourselves in contrast to the promise
that we get from the Lord in His Word, this is the list we might create. It almost
makes a literal apocalypse more appealing, because at least that would give us
something to get excited about.
And this brings me to my big point. Because we are creatures of contrast
who encounter countless tensions throughout the day, it can be all too easy
to be too hard on ourselves. We can be too quick to conclude that we don’t
measure up to whatever standards are being set at home, at work, in our
relationships, and by our God, and never could.
We all know what this feels like – it’s painful, it’s heartbreaking. It leaves us
feeling empty and insignificant and small. It leaves us feeling tense.
And here’s the thing: any time we say these things to ourselves, any time
we determine that our cause of achieving our goals is lost, any time we put
ourselves down and believe that we are nothing – we are right.
We are right, and at the same time we are mistaken.
We are right because on our own, we are nothing: we are but the dust of
the earth. We are mistaken because we are not on our own. With the Lord, we
can be all things. Teamed up with the Source of Life, we can have all life. With
the God of creation by our side, we can be created anew.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.
(Revelation 22:13)
I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
(Matthew 16:18)
Unless the Lord builds the house,
they labor in vain who build it.
Unless the Lord guards the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain. (Psalm 127:1)
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, bears much
fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)
We are nothing, but can become everything. Talk about a tension.
Making Use of the Tension
More than once I have been called out in the classroom for teaching this idea,
that we are nothing. No one likes being put down, no one likes being called
nothing, and for teenagers this is doubly true. As one student pointed out to
me:
“Mr. Barber, we’re at a time in our lives when we’re trying to figure out who we are.
We’re applying to colleges, trying to start our futures. Everyone is telling us that we can
be anything! And you’re telling us that we are nothing!”
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