More About You

Young’s book is a “Journey to the Center of Your Worth.” In the latter parts of the first chapter he uses a treadmill analogy in order to drive home the point that ‘as long as we search for the answer outside of God and by relying on ourselves, we will never truly satisfy our hunger for self-worth.' He believes people get on certain treadmills in an attempt to answer the question that was posed earlier: Do I matter?

As a side note, anything in italics is a direct quote from the book. All others are independent thoughts or paraphrased bits and pieces. I will try to make my language clear so you will be able to tell the difference between the paraphrasing and original thoughts.

Here’s a brief run-down of the different treadmills:

Style – The thought that if we can focus on our style and dedicate our energy to our appearance, we will gain the dignity, value, and affirmation we crave. Herein is brought the Scripture from Proverbs 31:30 (the virtuous woman!)“Charm can be deceptive and beauty doesn’t last.” Young states that many people in our vanity-driven culture are looking in the wrong mirror – the mirror on the wall – for their self-esteem and they consistently fall short in their search. If people base their worth solely on style and appearance, they are setting themselves up for insecurity because style & appearance are finite and fleeting. Not that people are to neglect their appearance. As temples of the Holy Spirit, Young believes human beings should treat their bodies with care and respect. But if appearance becomes the focus instead of spending time with God and serving Him, people get nowhere in their search for self-worth.

As a skinny, wild-haired, opinionated child, I often bore the brunt of brutal teasing. This teasing made me overly sensitive to my appearance and personality. I still struggle with the impact that teasing had on me. I know I am not alone in this! Everyone gets teased about something. Still, shouldn’t we look to God rather than imperfect people for the definition of who and why we are?

Status – Some people are convinced that status will bring the answer to the “Do I matter?” question in their lives. Again, Young pulls out Proverbs: “Confidence placed in riches comes to nothing.” (11:7) Still, we often think, “If I can make a little more money, have that car, wear those clothes, live in that house…then I’ll feel good about myself. Then I will have arrived." Consider the people we’ve chosen as our role models and heroes today. Eager kids and adults follow the lives of professional athletes, pop singers, and movie stars and try to emulate them. Strangely enough, many of our "heroes" have come to the realization that self-worth cannot be bought.

Success – Temporal things don’t matter to God, and they shouldn’t matter to us, either. Temporal things should not matter to us but they do matter to us, don’t they? They shouldn't, but they do. We often work ourselves too hard in order to achieve a certain level of success in whatever area of our lives we consider important. Too many times this hard work comes at the expense of loved ones. It just isn’t worth the price we force others to pay! I’ve been so guilty of this. So many times, Young says, our goals are centered on other people’s thoughts about us rather than what God thinks. Luke 16:15: The things that are considered of great value by people are worth nothing in God’s sight. Success is just a Band-Aid we apply to cover a deep, gaping wound – the hole that is our need for something beyond what this world has to offer.

Have you ever felt like you had everything you could possibly want but found yourself unhappy? Welcome to the club! We spend so much time slapping on those Band-Aids and filling our minds, lives, and houses with STUFF that we push God right out of the picture. Shame on us! We can do better my friends.

Thoughts from the second chapter will be posted soon. All Scripture notations were taken from the book and are the GNT.