I asked my wife if she had to boil it down to a simple one sentence reason, why is it that people who skyrocket to fame and fortune so often wind up disillusioned and become self-destructive. She said, “I think it comes down to loneliness.” She meant specifically, they wrestle with “who really knows me and who really loves me for me – even if I stopped doing this thing that has brought me fame and fortune?”
But you don’t have to be rich and famous to wrestle with that question. We all do! In my own experience as a pastor I felt that loneliness, and I did wonder who would love me if I stopped “producing.”
Ultimately, the Lord creatively used a season in my life when I felt terribly unimpressive and unproductive in order to convince me that His love for me is not based on my performance. He just loves me. I’d heard that for years. I’d taught it for years. I knew the specific Scriptures that supported it. But it wasn’t until it was really put to the test that I knew it to be true. Today I know it. Sure, I still forget sometimes and drift back into subconsciously feeling like its up to me to earn God’s love, but He faithfully reminds me that it’s not.
My sweet wife told me she could live with me in a single room with just a table to eat with me and a bed to sleep with me – and I believe her. But even if she couldn’t or wouldn’t, I know Someone who will. And that is true for every person who puts his or her trust in Him.
The proper order of faith is for us to realize the Lord does not love us because we serve Him; we serve Him because we know He loves us. In the words of the apostle Paul, I am convinced that nothing can separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
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