From Victim to Valued

July 21, 2017

From Victim to Valued

Psalm 119:30-32 (MSG)

²⁵ I’m feeling terrible- I couldn’t feel worse!

Get me on my feet again. You promised, remember?

When I told my story, you responded; train me well in your deep wisdom.

Help me understand these things inside and out so I can ponder your miracle-wonders.

My sad life’s dilapidated, a falling-down barn; build me up again by your Word.

Barricade the road that goes Nowhere; grace me with your clear revelation.

I choose the true road to Somewhere, I post your road signs at every curve and corner.

I grasp and cling to whatever you tell me; God don’t let me down!

I’ll run the course you lay out for me if you’ll just show me how.

I have been stewing over this journal for a couple weeks now and just haven’t had the time to put things together as I needed to. Once I read this verse I felt I needed to stop what I was doing and take the time to write this. Being in the construction field I have always looked for ways to take something old and repurpose it into something new. It may be a revitalized piece of furniture, or maybe some barn wood or old beams to make some new rustic exposed beams in a family room. God has called us for our value and not so we can seem like a victim or an old barn of yesteryear ready to fall down. He is looking to take those things in our lives that have been broken down and repurpose them into something new enhancing the history and memories of what once was into what something can be.

Anyone that knows me would know a couple things about me; I love old things especially cars and houses. It is not because of what it is, rather of what it once was and what it could be. It is about the value.

When I was in high school I had worked hard and bought a sports car, but not any sports car. I bought a 1988 Fiero GT coupe. The car was a beauty and fast. Due to being in college I decided to sell the car and surprisingly I got the same money out of it as what I bought it for. Now 25 years later I wish I had that car again, but finding the same car would cost me almost ten times what I sold it for.

Over the years I have searched for another car like this, or a 1965 Corvette, but I understand one thing; value has a cost and value takes vision.

This past weekend I was at a conference for a mentoring program and something struck me as one of the speakers spoke. We had been talking about what social things can hold people back from being their greatest.  As I sat there taking in everything I came to the realization that there is one critical thing that separates one from failure to success. That thing is deciding to be a victim or being valued.

As I reflected on this simple factor I thought about many different aspects of life where this reigns true. I thought about the boys in our mentoring group that come from a single parent home and maybe living in a shelter, but when I these 13-16 boys I don’t see them as being less, rather finding their abilities and encouraging them to grow into what God made them to be.

This past Tuesday I went with one of the other leaders as he had organized and made the connections with an auto dealership to create a summer internship for these kids to give them opportunities that very few kids may have the ability to obtain for various reasons. Understand that this leader did not just find connections with just any dealership, rather he connected these kids with the dealership that is invested in NASCAR and has produced drivers like Jimmy Johnson. As I watched what he did for these kids and what this dealership is doing for the community, I was speechless.

I have taken this just one step further though and had to look at the idea of victim to value in more than material things and community work and look at it in the scope of relationships and family. Currently more than 52% of all marriages in the US end in divorce, including in the church. Much of this has to do with a lack of value in relationships where to one or both partners do not feel valued by the other, which then trickles down to the children and becomes a generational problem. As a result it is likely to lead to dissatisfaction, infidelity, divorce and even victimhood, where some never grow out of or find their value once again.

Imaging for a moment if you were like that child that was being mentored and was given the opportunity to thrive like what my friend Tim and the dealership had given into your relationships. Would you still live as a victim or would you graduate to being valued in order to see what God has on the horizon for you?

In the book of Exodus there is a story about Moses leading the Children of Israel into battle against the Canaanites. The battle they were fighting was long and hard and Moses realized that when his arms were up they were winning, but when his arms fell the Israelites were losing. When Aaron and Hur recognized what was going on they each grabbed one of Moses’ arms to hold them up and they became victorious.

Without someone being willing to come by our side and hold our arms up, we may never recognize the victories God has before us. Sometimes it seems far easier to throw in the towel and give reason for our failures rather than pick ourselves back up and see the value God has made us for. Just like the classic cars I mentioned we need to understand the true value of something whether it is a relationship or a tangible item and that it requires a lot of work and investment in order to maintain the value. Some look at things for its net worth, but I look at things for its glory of what once was and its potential of what is to come.

Each of us has a history and in that history we have had tragedy. It is in that tragedy though that we come to a crossroad of either being a victim or being valued. Just like in that verse above we can be the old barn falling apart and look for someone else to give us value only to find ourselves even more run down than before. The psalmist says one thing so very important though: "build me up again by your Word."

How are things going for you to be built up? Are you allowing the Word to build you up or are you that old barn ready to fall over with the right storm?

Remember this as you go about your day. Understand what a 'barn find' is and apply it to your life as well as the lives of others as you go about your day. Allow God to pull off that cover that has been hiding your value of yesterday and allow Him to restore your glory to what will be. More importantly though, ask God to give you His vision that you may see others as the ultimate 'barn find' so you can see God reveal their epic value as He created them to be. Think and pray today for that person you can build into God's glory.It may be your spouse, a child, a family member or even an ex, but allow God to show you that value in others. You may be surprised as it may be you that God will lead someone into your life in hard times to restore you and bring new opportunities to!