The ministry of believing in people
On a scale of 1 to 10, when asked, “How do you feel about yourself?” People answered an average of 2.7! What is really sad in this hectic non-affirming world in which we live is that the score dropped from a “6” when our parents’ generation answered the question 28 years earlier. This squares with my experience – there are so many insecure people out there.
No wonder “Survivor” is so popular! People are stuck in survival mode, mucking thru life earning a living when the possibilities inside them are largely untapped.
People don’t believe in themselves. Many of them are products of broken homes. Instead of nurture, they experienced rejection. So they build little impregnable castles of self-protection.
The ministry of believing in people has never been more needed. It’s a great ministry; let me commend it to you. Look for the greatness planted in your family members or coworkers and call it out. Those strengths have been hidden too long. In calling them out, you yourself are also built up.
We all need someone who will believe in us in spite of all evidence to the contrary.
“We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.”
~e. e. cummings
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Seth,
I’m not sure I agree with you that Survivor is popular because people can relate. I actually would say it’s the opposite! People love Survivor because it shows average people living an extraordinary experience. I believe people look at Survivor as “I could to that” or “what an amazing adventure, I wish my life could be like that.”
I do, however, agree with your premise, and I think it’s begun to affect even our teenagers. I don’t think the whole “man is basically good” philosophy really has a place anymore in this culture. People don’t give themselves that much credit.
Thanks for the encouragement to encourage others!
Seth,
Your statement: “People don’t believe in themselves. Many of them are products of broken homes. Instead of nurture, they experienced rejection. So they build little impregnable castles of self-protection.”
This is so severely true in the children of Africa. There is an entire generation who the enemy is telling them they are worthless, that abandonment is their fault, that the death of their mother is their fault, that everyone they come in contact with is going to hurt them.
We see it every day as we work with orphans and quite frankly most of the children that we see.
It is so deeply rooted that only the HOLY SPIRIT will be able to penetrate their walls and reveal to them the truth. In the meantime, we have to show them Jesus’ love, Abba’s love, until the HOLY SPIRIT does His work.
Thanks for the encouragement.