Reflection for the Week - February 20

When we’re desperately longing for a sense of worth, dignity, and value, we can easily fall into idolatry. One of the ways this happens is when “standards” play the primary role in our lives. We either applaud ourselves if we meet the standards we set, or disregard ourselves when we fail to measure up. Keeping to standards of rationality, being understood, looking a certain way, exercise, or diet become the center of our lives. Yet, such primacy demands far too much space within us and in turn results in our being inhospitable to ourselves. If nothing else can get in or through that is more essential, then our standards become idols. But when it comes to worth, value, and dignity, these find their ground in God and being, and thus are realities that are already there, which can’t be earned by doing. Standards we set belong to another category, and cannot give us what we already have. On this basis, recognizing the “is-ness” of our worth, value, and dignity, we should “make room” for and show ourselves hospitality, so that a real and appropriate love of self can be an actuality.