Pride

What are you proud of?  I mean really proud of? 

I love hearing from my teens and catching up on their lives.  This is the main reason that we devote about 1/3 of our weekly time together to just "hanging out".  We need a chance to catch up on whats important, since we don't see each other everyday. 

Usually I hear about the important stuff like this:

• My brother and I were playing Madden and...
• I made the team...
• I got my driver's permit/license...
• I passed my test...
• I made 20 new facebook friends...

Sometimes I hear about things that really matter like this:

• I got tickets to the concert!
• I'm going to a Pats game!
• I got a new Ipod!
• I scored x number of points!
• I'm dating this new person!
• I got accepted to 3 colleges!

I really love hearing about this stuff, and I'm not making fun of any of it, even the Madden stuff...  I really do specifically set aside time in each week so that each student will have time to tell me, or one of the other small group leaders what happened this week that mattered most.  I just wonder how often we stop and wonder if what is important to us is the same stuff that would matter to God.

Here's a few things I have heard recently that I think God would be really proud of:

• I got a purity ring, but when I try to explain it to people at school they make fun of me.
• Our teacher thinks aliens made people, but my friends, come to me with questions about God because of what I say in class.
• I had this awesome conversation about God with my friend from school.
• This guy I really liked, said he wouldn't date me because of my purity ring.
• I skipped practice to be here.

Here's what I know.  "We were created to pursue an authentic relationship with our Creator."  The things we do that move us closer to God, are the things we can be proud of, but the other stuff... Well that's a bit tougher.

Saul was a guy who had every reason to be proud of himself.  By the standards of his culture he was a rock star.  But God had to take it all away, even his name, and remake him.  Saul, later known as Paul, said this,  "Everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, For his sake I have thrown away everything else, counting it all as garbage."

What matters most to you? What are you proud of?  What have you thrown away so that you could follow Jesus?