In this world we will face pressure and we will feel like we’re not measuring up. In this clip from her Bible study, Proven: Where Christ’s Abundance Meets Our Great Need, Jennie Allen relates to her daughter that God provides us rhythms of grace in our times of tiredness and stress.
The entire video is above, and the complete transcript is below.
My daughter Kate and I are driving down the highway, we’re going to go get dinner. She’s 14 years old. She just started high school. And Zac and I have four kids. And so getting time alone with one of them is very important. And usually if it’s just me and Kate, Kate will open up and she’ll usually tell me what’s going on.
We did all our small talk and I could tell she was quiet and thinking about kinda sharing what’s going on. And she paused. And I’ve learned as a mom to not enter that space. To let it sit.
Finally she opens up and, mind you, she’s been in high school for only a few weeks. And there’s a lot of pressure. Really in every category in her life. And so, she says this, “Mom, I feel like I’m losing everywhere I look.”
Now my kid is awesome. She’s full of gifts and she’s smart and she’s beautiful inside and out. And honestly, I can’t believe she’s my kid. But that kid feels like she’s not measuring up.
When I was listening to her talk I was thinking, “I actually feel the exact same way, Kate.” And it’s nothing new. I just never opened up about my list. It was too long in my head. But eventually those lists become bondage. Striving, performing, working my tail off to measure up to some invisible list of expectations.
And guess what? Everywhere I go, I see a similar pressure and disappointment in your eyes too.
I know performing is part of life. We can’t escape it when you think about jobs and school and parents and expectations. It’s part of life. The problem isn’t performance. The problem is that we attach our worth to our performance here.
As I drove, listening to Kate, three words kept running through my head as she talked. The three words were “rhythms of grace”. And I couldn’t remember exactly where that passage was so I had Kate look it up on my phone. And she read it out loud as we drove.
It was taken from Matthew 11 in a paraphrase version of Scripture called The Message.
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me–watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (Matthew 11:28-30 MSG)