There’s a cookie epidemic in our culture.
I have seen this cookie epidemic happen in many different contexts but I mostly see it in the ministry world, particularly in myself.
This cookie epidemic started between a joke my wife and I had with each other. After one of us will do something around the house, whether it be cleaning a room, painting a wall, cooking food or something as simple as making cookies, we will ask the question; what do you think of the cookies? Are they good? Unfortunately, I’m the one that normally falls prey to this as my false self likes the applause for simply activities like folding the clothes.
But we really aren't asking if the cookies are good are we? We are really asking the question of each other, am I good? If the cookies that I made are good then that means I am good. But the reverse is true. What happens if the cookies are not good? Does that mean I am not good?
Unfortunately this can also be true about the ministries that we lead and have influence over. I see it in myself and have seen it many times in the largest of churches and the smallest of ministries; how our identity becomes wrapped up in the thing we are called to steward.
I first saw it when I was a youth pastor fifteen years ago. When we would have a good Wednesday night gathering of youth and eighty kids would show up I would be really excited, seeing how much the youth group was growing. But when only fifty kids would show up the next week, I would get really depressed and discouraged.
Why? Because my goodness was tied to what I could produce. I was really asking this question, am I good? The false self turns our motives of helping others into a way of earning goodness.
This is one of the things that Paul is calling out in the letter to the Galatians, the fact that they were trying to earn their sense of goodness through a legalistic obedience to the law. He says as much in chapter 3, “Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort?” Human effort tries to produce really good cookies so that we feel better about ourselves, thus proving our goodness.
Our goodness doesn’t come from any of those things. It comes from the riches that we have in Christ Jesus. This is beautiful to recognize. As Christians, we are first and foremost God’s beloved children! We are not our jobs. We are not our roles in life. We are not….fill in the blank. We are God’s children! As my wife has beautifully stated, “The gifts that God has given were never meant to be a source of identity.”
A brother in Christ that is giving his life to walking with neighbors trapped in the sex trafficking industry here in Atlanta said, “I used to think my purpose in life was my calling. I thought my purpose (my calling) was to help put an end to Commercial Sex Exploitation. But now I know my purpose in life is to be a son of the Most High King and to rest in that relationship. And from that I join my Father in the great adventure of raising awareness against Commercial Sex Exploitation. It is so much more freeing. I am not the hero of my story...but simply a son who loves his Father deeply and wants to tag along.”
If our motive is rooted in trying to prove something or please someone, then we’ve missed the goodness of God and the beautiful gifts he’s given us. Abba Father loves us apart from what we can do!
Rest in the finished work of Christ brothers and sisters, for we are the beloved children of God and we are good!