"All my life I've struggled to be loved.  I've tried everything: complained, guilted, begged, wooed, strived, prayed... but nothing worked... I sort of understood that was part of the problem - that I had to work to get everything I wanted and everything I needed... and, after 45 years of not feeling I was getting loved, I always came back to the conclusion that since I wasn't getting that love, one of three things were happening:

that I wasn't working hard enough,
I wasn't working in the right ways,
or that I was lazy (or worse - that I just wasn't good enough - that I was born without whatever it is
that I needed to be loved - to be valuable.  That I just didn't have the strength to achieve...)

This last one felt like it was the most likely case, (and I feared that this was the answer,) and I didn't want to admit this truth to myself, so I kept holding out hope that maybe it wasn't true somehow.  But it was true.  I'm just not that strong.

(None of us are, I discovered, and not for the reason you might think.)

"The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don’t make anything happen." ~John 6:63

I am not good enough to do anything or be more than I am.  (The rest of the world saw this way before I did... and God saw this in me too.)  The world couldn't do anything about my "less-ness" - even if they cared to - but God could, and he did.

Oh, I thought for a long time that God didn't care, that he didn't love me - couldn't love me - but that just wasn't true.  Through God's grace, he chose me to finally see the full Truth - to finally understand the part he plays in my answer.

You see, we're not good enough, none of us are, God knows this but he doesn't leave us here (as the world does). Where the world is incapable to help us with our value, God is capable and did something about it.  (Again, God's grace goes into action for us - doing the work of giving us value - making us valuable - far beyond what we could ever achieve on our own.  He made us priceless.)  The cost for this valuation was greater than any of us could ever pay, so God paid the price for us to have value and then turned around and just gave us our value for free... as a gift with no strings attached.

Can you believe it?  I didn't believe that for the first 45 years of my life.  I couldn't.  Shame is our enemy and keeps this and many other Truths just out of our reach...  but I believe it now... I know it.  And soaking in this truth is what made the difference.

So, what did I have to do to earn, or beg, or woo, or strive, or cajole to get this value in myself?  Nothing... just be.  It was God's gift to me.  To get it, I just had to be human.  And just being human qualifies all of us to get this same gift.

Do you believe it?  Because if you believe in God's free gift to you, then you have it, and you will never be "less than" again.  No one can take your new value from you.  "What God brings together, no one can separate." ~Mark 10:9.  Not even our doubt on those "down-days" when we remember (or are reminded of) how we've fallen short...

Because it's a gift that we feel we don't deserve doesn't change the fact that it's still a gift that was given to us. We may not think we should have our freedom from having to "do" to perform all the time, but God thinks we should have this gift.  And, who are we to overturn the only one qualified to be our judge?  I'm so glad God judges us with mercy, forgives us, and sets us free.  And, since no one of us (or even all of us together) can be higher than God, no one can overturn his ruling.  Thank God that we have a generous God who loves us, and paid the price for us, so we can now, and forever, be priceless!  And, all we have to "do" is nothing, just B.E.

If you're tired of starting over... you don't have to anymore, (God started over for you).

Now you can just B.E.

If you keep feeling like you can't do it... it's because you can't.  None of us are good enough to continue to "do" it.  God took over for us and is "doing it" so we don't have to anymore (even if we could).

Now we can just B.E.

If you feel like giving up the relentless "reaching for more and more value in your life," give it up!  Stop striving, stop wanting... we already have all the more we could ever seek - we've already arrived - we've already achieved, we've already won - not by our power, or "on our own steam" - but by the power of God working out his will to love us and then, giving that love to us freely/for free.  (You might think God didn't get much in trade when He got us, but that's because you terribly underestimate your value to God... He thinks you are worth everything to him!)

And all we have to "do" to enjoy our new "position" is just B.E.

If you've tried and keep failing to be "More," it's because it is impossible to be any more than we are right now!  Because, in God's economy, we already are all the "More" we could ever be!  We don't have to woo God, or pray "enough" to "earn" our way, or beg throughout our life to be loved anymore (or any More loved), because we already are loved - (God gives that gift to us before he even creates us in our mother's womb!)  In fact, he created us and saved us because he loves us!

Live in that knowledge and just B.E.

Are you mentally and emotionally tired of pretending so that others can "put up with you" better?  You don't have to keep doing that anymore.  There is already someone who loves you for who you really are!

Because of God's work in our lives, we can just B.E.

God wants us to just B.E...
He's made the way
for it to be possible
for you to just B.E. today!