significance

Don't you love it when something you've learned in school actually shows up in real life? I suppose my degree is applicable to life all the time since it has to do with Spiritual Formation--and you just can't shut off that function.

At my job (working as a barista at a coffee shop), our supervisor recently decided to move back home to South Dakota. This is leaving a spot open for the position and my manager approached me to step into it. My co-workers were all very supportive and were encouraging me to do it. Beware: now's when my pride flares up. I was feeling pretty good about this. In fact, I started to feel like I was the BEST person for this job. God didn't let me live like this for long, thank goodness! I had to check my motives and my heart's attitude a lot. I vacillated in my decision; some days I wanted it, but most days the thought of the added responsibility made me crazy. In the end, I went into my interview praying that I wouldn't get the position because my future departure for Japan might be sooner than later (yeah!) and it wouldn't be in my company's best interest to move me up.

So now, it's 3 am and I'm wide awake from the caffeine I've inhaled/digested today and thinking of a Henri Nouwen article I've read a million times at Wheaton College. Here's a link for the entire article I found on-line: http://www.fbccs.org/resources/papers/soli_comm_mini.asp It's well worth the read. Check it out!

The part that is jumping out to me tonight is Nouwen's idea that we have to be secure in our identity in Christ to minister effectively and this comes out of solitude with Jesus. "...your freedom is anchored in claiming your belovedness. That allows you to go into this world and touch people, heal them, speak with them, and make them aware that they are beloved, chosen, and blessed. When you discover your belovedness by God, you see the belovedness of other people and call that forth. It's an incredible mystery of God's love that the more you know how deeply you are loved, the more you will see how deeply your sisters and your brothers in the human family are loved."

I am significant, not because others look to me for leadership and guidance, but because I am wholly known and wholly loved. I am the beloved of Christ and that is the only identity I need.