The Best News Ever: You’re the Worst Person in the WorldSample

In my early twenties, I was economically poor. The floors were crumbling, and the cupboards were bare, but I thought I could make myself rich in spirit. I wasn’t poor in the way Jesus talks about—the way that leads to peace. Instead, I had my list. I had my goals, and because I tried so hard, I often felt like I was doing well. I’d read, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” and believed I was crushing it because I was trying to be holy and I was lacking in resources. Boom — Nailed it! How nice of God, I thought, to bless me with such a thorough list of holy goals because I’m poor! But really, freedom felt so far away. The Bible says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.” (Matthew 5:3) My mouth said, “Mmmmmmm, Yes Lord,” but my heart cried, “How can ‘blessing’ be this exhausting, and why is the kingdom of heaven so broke?” The Problem With Thinking Poverty Equals Poor in Spirit Jesus was born in a barn, celebrated by shepherds. A woodworker in a small town raised him. Jesus often lived with little money and without a home (Matthew 8:20), but He turned the world upside-down. Jesus didn’t come to empty pocketbooks. He didn’t come for financial reform. He came instead to empty the world of the counterfeit riches of the heart. We humans thought we could be righteous if we had enough devotion to enough lists. We were blinded into believing that more striving after more self-actualization would eventually lead us to freedom, despite the fact that all the evidence shows the result of that pursuit is depravity or depression, and its damnation either way. Christ wasn’t on a money mission. He came to save us from destroying ourselves, but do we really believe that? Do we really believe that without Him, we would destroy ourselves? I’d venture to say many of us land somewhere in the middle class on this. God, I took good sermon notes today, so I know you’ll make my meeting go well tomorrow? If that were how God worked, we wouldn’t need Him. If God were beholden to our holiness, there would be no such thing as holiness and no such thing as God. So, how do we fix our perspective? How can we help our minds to believe that we need God’s grace no matter what we find on our lists? How can we live with actions that say, “God doesn’t owe anything to me, and God doesn’t need anything from me, and God doesn’t want me striving to be good on my own?” How do we live believing He wants us to empty ourselves of that track record we try so hard to pull off by ourselves so He can fill us up with a way better track record? We must believe in our need. The path to freedom begins with knowing our neediness.