(an excerpt from Renewed to Soar! Inspiration from Summit of Light)
I like to watch the Antiques Road Show® and am often surprised by the items that are appraised at great value and those that are not. This is because, to my untrained eye, many of the items that are of little value are rather beautiful; conversely, many of the items that do not look like much are of great value.
I submit that the same faulty assessments can be made about many disciples of Jesus Christ. To the world, and sadly even to some Christians, some of us may not look like much. As a result, we are often dismissed as inconsequential to the Body of Christ.
But those flawed judgments fail to take into consideration how God sees us, His plans and purposes for our lives, or that His viewpoints are usually diametrically the opposite of man’s. The things we consider to be priceless treasures, the Lord may deem to be worthless. Indeed, the Lord has placed within us a Priceless Treasure who is beyond compare yet we often quench, grieve, and vex Him, or truly appreciate Him.
Then there is the stuff — all of the material possessions we amass ever so quickly and cannot seem to get rid of when they no longer serve a useful purpose — if they ever did. Not to mention the morass of spiritual stuff that entangles and hinders us from running well.
Whenever we are transitioning from one season to another or from one year to the next, that would be a good time to quietly reflect on who and what should remain in our lives, and what we should let go. It would be a good time to seek the Lord regarding what He considers to be valuable, junk, and all the stuff that needs to be downsized or discarded so that we can run our races with focus, purpose, patience, and excellence.
It is our prayer that we will have ears to hear what the Spirit of the Lord speaks to us and then the courage to obey.
