The Soul Felt Its Worth

When I was a junior in high school, I distinctly remember a day in my religion class where we were supposed to work on a group project. I distinctly remember this day because, sitting with a few of my closest friends, we decided to do something much different: we decided to make what we titled, 'The Worthless List'. And this list is exactly what it sounds like; it was a list of people that we deemed worthless for a variety of reasons. They were teachers who gave too much homework, guys who chose not to like us, girls whose popularity we wanted to tarnish, and people who had crossed us in any way. I tell this story in complete embarrassment, but I confess to this act because I think it shows something valuable about the state of humanity. We long for worth. I judged people because I was tired of being judged. I deemed people worth less than me because I wanted to be worth more.

Behind the masks I wore and the facade I put up was a soul yearning for more than superficial worth. I longed for someone to rejoice in the person I was instead of the person I was pretending to be. I longed for wholeness in a world that offered me brokenness. I longed for love; and not the come-and-go love I experienced during that time, but sacrificial, all-encompassing, ever-merciful love. I still do and I am quite certain that this is the experience of much of humanity.

"Long lay the world, in sin and error pining" is a perfect description of our world. In our sin and brokenness, we are pining for more. In our independence and ignorant pursuit of self-sufficiency, we are pining to depend on someone who won't let us down. In a society that contradicts and condemns, we are looking for truth and acceptance.

"Long lay the world, in sin and error pining, til he appeared and the soul felt its worth".

When Jesus appears, worth is renewed. When Jesus enters our souls, true worth is felt. As the Psalmist describes, "Our soul waits for the Lord" and it waits for Jesus to fulfill the deep, yet unspoken desires of our heart--to be the beloved, to be whole, to be healed, to be loved, to be found worthy. The prophet Zephaniah describes that with Jesus comes "a mighty savior" who "will rejoice over you with gladness and renew you in his love". And if we open our hearts to receive Jesus, he will "bring about your restoration before your very eyes" (Zephaniah 3:20).

In these last few days of Advent, may we wait in joyful expectation for Christ, the giver of worth. May we, "in sin and error pining" wait for the one who humbly accepted our humanity to restore us and renew us in his love. Giving up the pursuit of the superficial worth found in the temporal world, may we beg for the grace to desire the true worth only experienced in Christ. And as we allow Christ to be born more fully into our lives, may we fall on our knees in humble adoration of the savior whose life demonstrates to us the love of the Father. Have a blessed Christmas as we celebrate the Messiah who finds us worthy of his love!