{"id":1889,"date":"2022-08-16T09:48:45","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T13:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1889"},"modified":"2022-08-16T09:48:45","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T13:48:45","slug":"the-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/16\/the-verdict\/","title":{"rendered":"The Verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the month of August,\u00a0we\u2019re taking a close look at 23 verses of the New Testament.\u00a0 They comprise Ephesians chapter one, which paints one of the Bible\u2019s most comprehensive pictures of what it means for ordinary people to be \u201cin Christ.\u201d \u00a0<\/em>
\u00a0
Madonna, who turns 64 today, has had quite a career.\u00a0
\u00a0
She\u2019s the best-selling female recording artist of all time.\u00a0 Her worldwide sales of 300 million records, in fact, trail only The Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Michael Jackson.\u00a0
\u00a0
She is the most successful singles artist ever on the combined Billboard<\/em> charts, having scored multiple #1 songs in multiple categories, including Pop, Rock, Dance, and even Hot Country.\u00a0 All in all, she has grossed over $1.4 billion from concert appearances.
\u00a0
Paul McCartney famously sang, \u201cWill you still need me, will you still feed me, when I\u2019m 64?\u201d\u00a0 Madonna isn\u2019t exactly spending her birthday checking out assisted living facilities.\u00a0 She\u2019s shown no signs of slowing down and continues to solidify her spot as the greatest solo touring artist in music history.\u00a0
\u00a0
Which is why it seems incredible that she is continually battling self-doubt.\u00a0
\u00a0
For Madonna, life has always had a courtroom feel.\u00a0 Every day, she\u2019s on trial.\u00a0 What is the verdict?\u00a0 Is she good enough or not good enough?\u00a0 Is she genuinely special or just another fading rock star?\u00a0 Here\u2019s what she said a few years ago in an interview in Vogue <\/em>magazine:\u00a0
\u00a0
My drive in life comes from a fear of being mediocre.\u00a0 That is always pushing me.\u00a0I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being, but then I feel I am still mediocre and uninteresting unless I do something else. Because even though I have become somebody, I still have to prove that I am somebody.\u00a0 My struggle has never ended, and I guess it never will.<\/em>
\u00a0
You have to say this much about Madonna:\u00a0She is astonishingly transparent.\u00a0
\u00a0
She puts into words what most of us find hard to admit.\u00a0 We\u2019re hoping against hope that our performance \u2013 as a worker, as a parent, as a servant, as a disciple, as an artist \u2013 will finally allow us to conclude that we are somebody.\u00a0 <\/em>We\u2019re good enough.\u00a0 We\u2019re important.\u00a0 We\u2019re valuable.
\u00a0
Yesterday may have been an awesome day.\u00a0 But tomorrow\u2019s a different story.\u00a0\u00a0The problem is that when we wake up we\u2019ll have to start all over again.\u00a0
\u00a0
In his book The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness, <\/em>pastor Tim Keller writes, \u201cMadonna has done things that you and I are never going to do \u2013 and it is still not enough.\u00a0 Madonna has heaps of talent, she has tremendous guts.\u00a0 But even Madonna, despite everything she has done, says that she has still not found the ultimate verdict she is looking for.\u201d
\u00a0
One of life\u2019s most important lessons is that when it comes to performing our way to a happy verdict about our own worth, more is not more<\/em>.
\u00a0
We will never be good enough.\u00a0 Or talented enough.\u00a0 Or smart enough.\u00a0 Or pretty enough.\u00a0 Or enough of anything.\u00a0 Even if we get a good verdict one day, we may get the \u201cthumbs-down\u201d from the crowd just 24 hours later.
\u00a0
So it really comes down to this:\u00a0Whose opinion of me really counts?
\u00a0
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Is it your opinion?
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Or my family\u2019s?
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Or my boss\u2019s?
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Or the people at my high school reunion?
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Or my friends on Facebook?
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Or my own opinion of myself?
\u00a0
The apostle Paul casts a different vote:\u00a0 The only opinion that really counts is God\u2019s<\/em>.\u00a0 With God, the ultimate verdict is already in.
\u00a0
It\u2019s not inappropriate to call Ephesians 1 the \u201cidentity chapter.\u201d\u00a0 More than any other patch of scripture, these verses describe our identity in Christ.\u00a0
\u00a0
Think of the territory we\u2019ve already covered.\u00a0 We are blessed, chosen, forgiven, predestined, adopted, loved, redeemed, and lavished with God\u2019s grace.\u00a0 Where is all this leading?\u00a0 Check out verse 12:\u00a0\u201cIn order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>
\u00a0
Have you decided to put your hope in Jesus?\u00a0 Then you are already, and forever, somebody.\u00a0<\/em>
\u00a0
You can get off the Performance Plan.
\u00a0
Which is incredibly good news.\u00a0

Even for almost-senior-citizen Material Girls.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throughout the month of August,\u00a0we\u2019re taking a close look at 23 verses of the New Testament.\u00a0 They comprise Ephesians chapter one, which paints one of the Bible\u2019s most comprehensive pictures of what it means for ordinary people to be \u201cin Christ.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0Madonna, who turns 64 today, has had quite a career.\u00a0\u00a0She\u2019s the best-selling female recording artist of all time.\u00a0 Her… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[480,489],"class_list":["post-1889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ephesians","tag-identity-in-christ"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1891,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1889\/revisions\/1891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}