I am at that point in my life - and when it hits us is different for each of us - that I too often find myself comparing my life to that of those around me. Normally, this doesn't include things accumulated but life situations - jobs, families, skills accumulated, and the like.

Yesterday I was with a group of friends for a cookout and though it was one of those days I didn't feel I had the energy after work to go anywhere, I mustered the energy (thank you Lord) and truly enjoyed an evening of good food and good fellowship.

I spent some time looking over family pictures on the wall of my friend's home, weddings, grandkids, special times captured on film to be remembered and shared. I admired hand-crafted furniture that my friend has made and the incredibly clean and organized wood shop he had built for himself (I often find the people I admire to be neat and well organized, something I am not). He, like another pastor long ago had found solice in woodworking.

I must admit to some moments of meloncholy as I reviewed the photos and souveniers of a life lived to the fullest in my friend's home, my singleness and the distance between family members becoming suddenly heavy on me.

Also present was another couple whom I love dearly; they admitted to being devastated by the trouble of two of their kids who are just a little younger than I am. They are wonderful people who love the Lord with all of their hearts, yet their kids have chosen paths that are difficult and broken. I hurt for them. Their pain made mine suddenly vanish, further evidence that the best way to deal with your own burdens are to focus on those of others and how you can lighten them.

Our self-worth can't come from our stuff. It can't come from the work that we do. We must deal with the issues Christ allows into our lives and do with them the best that we can. I was worth the life blood and death of Jesus Christ! I don't understand that, will never be able to fully grasp that love of the Father but I can't tell you how grateful I am for it.

You are worth the life blood of Jesus Christ my friend! Luke12:24 tells us to "Consider the ravens: they do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than the birds!"

Under His Grace,

Brad