Monday, June 7, 2010

what I'm reading: success and identity from Counterfeit Gods

Every day I get a quote about the cross in my inbox from Of First Importance. It's a great way to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus.

Here's some words I found particularly helpful as I reflected on how we get our identity from what we do.

How can we break our heart’s fixation on doing 'some great thing' in order to heal ourselves of our sense of inadequacy, in order to give our lives meaning? Only when we see what Jesus, our great Suffering Servant, has done for us will we finally understand why God’s salvation does not require us to do 'some great thing.' We don’t have to do it, because Jesus . . . did it all for us ... When we believe in what he accomplished for us with our minds, and when we are moved by what he did for us in our hearts, it begins to kill off the addiction, the need for success at all costs.

Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods (New York, NY: Dutton, 2009), 93-94, HT Of First Importance

image is from OnlyByGrace at flickr

2 comments:

Jennifer Farris said...

Wow...just what I needed to hear. Thanks for this...also your post about Busyness and Burnout. You put my feelings into words.

Jennifer
http://www.thefarriswheel.blogspot.com

Cat P said...

Thanks Jean - what a great idea 'Of First Importance' is... I've just subscribed and looking forward to daily snippets of encouragement. Thanks for pointing it out!