I’m so excited to be doing the first regular post here! I’ve been ecstatic to have Uncommon Grace up and running after the official launch last week. I’ve put a lot of effort into getting this site “right” and by this I mean editing the old posts I decided to bring over from my old site, redoing and editing my photography, and agonizing over my word choice for the pages. I spent a lot of time on it and I had begun to feel like I poured my heart and soul into it.

But, I can’t really do that. More on that in a second.

When I launched and shared this site, I have to admit I spent way too much time checking how many likes and follows I got. I’ve always loved statistics, but you know, 79.38% of statistics are made up on the spot.

I tend to put way too much value in the numbers. It is an easy way to gauge how “good” something is. After all my work, I wanted to see this site being received well.

Obviously, my goal is to share what I know of God with people. It is a life changing message and the grace He has given me has changed my life. I want to get this message out there as much as I can.

The problem is that I started to count the value of my work along with all of the likes and follows.

The problem is that I find to much of my value in how much of an impact I make.

The problem is that I should be finding my value in Christ, not what I do.

That is the irony of the situation. While in the midst of checking on this site’s progress, I was writing some passages for my book. These passages are about finding our value in Christ rather than what we do.

I think I need to take my own advice.

We can never do enough. We could never be good enough to make up for all the darkness in our hearts. We can never escape the sin. “For the wages of sin is death” Romans 6:23 starts out. No amount of good that I do, no amount of likes, no amount of follows, no amount of validation from other people is going to mean a thing when it comes down to it. But the verse keeps going, “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”.

That is what grace is. It’s free. My value isn’t dependent on doing stuff to earn it no matter how good my work is. It just requires that I give God my heart. I can’t have any peace otherwise.

That is why I don’t think it is really right for me to start pouring my heart and soul into my writing. Even good things, like serving Him, can be twisted. It can be cloudy sometimes because I want to do a good job, but a good job is dependent on my heart being poured into God. The good comes out of that.

I’m not responsible for the outcome. God is. He can use this however He wants whether it be successful or not. That’s up to Him. All I’m required is to do the best I can with what He has given me.

I tend to find too much value in doing things. You think I would have learned this lesson a long time ago since chronic illness has stripped me of many of my old abilities. God clearly wants me to listen to Him on this. My value needs to be firmly rooted in Him, not found by the numbers. But, we are all guilty of this in some way.

Where does your value lie?

Is it in having a lot of friends? Being popular? Being smart? Being athletic? Being a leader? Or is it where it should be… in God?

I don’t think we’ll be able to reach our full potential until we start doing things for Him solely. We spend too much time in this state trying to do things in our own power rather than through His.

I’m still learning this. It’ll probably be a lifelong process. But, I’m going to continue pouring myself into God so He can use me to pour Himself into Uncommon Grace.

And yes, it really is okay to like this post 😉

Where do you tend to find your value? Is it in Christ or somewhere else, maybe in doing things like me?