Performance Pressure

Come, let's take a walk down the path of pride.  Let us wander among the lands of greed and shame, past the vast desert that is arrogance and self-promotion.  It is here we stumble across a small village.  It looks like the perfect place to live.  See how neat and beautiful the houses and yards are?  The people are all so friendly.  They all smile at you.  They are all elegant or handsome, with their neatly kept children and their awards and promotions.  Everyone here is happy.  Welcome to the land of performance.

Move in here, and you will love it at first.  You will find joy in trimming your bushes, greeting your neighbors, and going on daily runs to lose a few pounds.  Productivity is always a nice feeling.  But wait until the weeks become months, and you may have a different opinion.  You will wonder how on earth you are going to get everything done.  Just being at your best will no longer be enough, you'll need to be better than everyone else.  Your desire to be the skinniest, the smartest, the happiest, or the most respected will leave you under constant stress until you don't remember the last time you breathed easy.

If only you could get close enough to see into the cracks of your neighbors houses.  There you would see the struggles kept silent in the light of day.  You would begin to make out the insecurities that so closely mirror your own.  You would see that the people you are trying so hard to be are really just as imperfect as you.

When Christ finds us here, in the land of insecurity, he invites us to wave our white flags and step out of the trenches that our lives have become.  He allows us to be real about our struggles and even okay with falling down.  He encourages us to leave behind the world we've been living in for so long.

Because in the land of performance, you will be taught that you must be at your best so that you will be loved.  But, if you step into the light of God's grace, you will learn a different truth.  You are loved, and therefore, given a holy strength that will make you more than you could ever imagine.