Tag: growth

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Your Work Does Not Prove Your Worth

Daily I receive an inspirational/educational email from Reverend Rick Warren, founder of Saddleback Church in Southern California; also author of Purpose Driven Life and Purpose Driven Church…two great reads. One of the things I love about Rev. Rick’s emails is that they are ALL related to real life issues, things we face every day. Related, I believe that we as Catholics can learn much from our non-Catholic Christian Brothers and Sisters while maintaining our Catholic orthodoxy. Rev. Rick is a good example of that. You can get information at https://pastorrick.com. 


His January 16th email was titled, Your Work Does Not Prove Your Worth. It’s repeated below in its entirety…because it’s that good. And very consistent with my message. You can also find it here.

Photo by Vlada Karpovich

When you find yourself stuck in a cycle of overworking, you need to remember your value to God.

This is the exact opposite of basing your worth on your work, your career, or your full-time role. It is countercultural and may require a major change in your thinking, especially if a little voice in your head keeps saying, “You’ve got to prove you matter.”

One of the reasons people can’t relax is that they confuse their work and their worth. They confuse their net worth with their self-worth. They think, “If I work really hard and succeed at work, then I am valuable. If I’m not productive, then I’m not valuable.” That’s a lie! But in Western culture, our identity often revolves around our work, so we overwork in an attempt to prove ourselves. We believe that if we achieve a lot, then we must be worth a lot.

But your significance has nothing to do with your job, your career, or your achievements.

You don’t have to prove your worth. God says that you are already extremely valuable. You’ll never be more valuable to God than you are right now; you’ll never be less valuable to God than you are right now.

How valuable are you? Your heavenly Father created you; Jesus died for you. And if you are a follower of Christ, the Holy Spirit lives in you.

God doesn’t create anything without purpose or intention. The fact that you’re alive means God loves you and wants you alive. You’re priceless. You’re a masterpiece.

It’s not what you do that gives you worth but who you belong to.

Did you know that God has a tattoo of you? Isaiah 49:15-16 says, “Can a mother forget her little child and not have love for her own son? Yet even if that should be, I will not forget you. See, I have tattooed your name upon my palm”. 

Are you perfect? Absolutely not. Are you broken? Yes. Are you a sinner? Yes. But are you of infinite value? Yes! And you are deeply loved by God.

He already proved your worth on the cross.

Loved the above from Rev. Rick, which is why I’m posting it…very succinct. We all need to remind ourselves of these things. Hope this helped. 

As always, please email me at Mark@MarkJosephMinistries.com with questions, concerns, comments, or prayer requests. 

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God made you for Greatness!!!

Mark Joseph

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Weekly Blog

The Real Deal

During this series we’ve talked about the things that overwhelm us, and how many of those things are rooted in lies about who we are and where our true value lies. We’ve talked about our need to succeed and how it’s born out of our perception that we have to earn love. We’ve addressed lack of self-love and fear, tragedy and isolation, and the reality of our wounds and resentments. All of this helps us get a clearer picture of why our lives are the way they are, why peace, joy, and fulfillment evade us, and why we’re overwhelmed — but it still doesn’t provide the answer as to how we fix it.   

Most are seeking a better life, desiring to better understand their purpose, and just plain fed up with being fed up and overwhelmed. The world’s promises have all proved empty, but there’s another promise that never fails. It may sound simplistic, but it’s absolutely true: God is the only answer for our lives. God is the only thing that can fill up the hole in our hearts, the ultimate source of the unconditional love we desire. Most of us understand that love through conversion.  

My Conversion

My conversion was not something I anticipated. Nor did I volunteer for it. It was more like being hit across the back of the head with three 2x4s. I was at an all-time low. I had lost my marriage and my family as I knew it, something that I had not signed up for. My business, my pride and joy and my identity, was significantly down-sized. And I had lost a lot of money due to some very foolish decisions along the way. I was a control freak and had lost all control. I couldn’t hold it together anymore. My world was falling apart. The walls were caving in. 

I don’t know if you can relate to this, but the stress and the pressure literally forced me to my knees one night in March 2006. I couldn’t take it anymore, I broke. I fell to my knees at the side of my bed, sobbing. I couldn’t stop crying, I mean snot flying. I was a 43-year-old man and I was a mess. I remember saying over and over again, “I can’t do this alone anymore, I can’t do this alone anymore, I can’t do this alone anymore.” I only stopped due to pure exhaustion, still kneeling but now resting my head on the bed. 

I had never heard the audible voice of God, but I felt a real calm come over the room and a peace come over me. I felt Jesus Christ’s presence, a feeling unlike anything I had ever experienced before. And in my heart, I heard him say, “You’re not alone. I am here for you.” I heard it over and over again, like he was answering me in direct response. “You’re not alone. I am here for you . . . You’re not alone. I am here for you.” 

It’s difficult to truly express how I felt. That was the moment that I not only felt God’s real presence in my life for the first time, but I experienced his unconditional love. I realized I couldn’t do it alone, and I didn’t have to. He was and is there for me. A huge burden was lifted off me. I had encountered God, a God whom I could rely on, a God who loves me. I literally felt different. I was different, now knowing God’s love. 

My conversion rocked my world and changed my life forever. That’s my unique story. Yours’ will be just as impactful for you as mine has been for me. If you haven’t had this experience yet, do not give up. If I’ve learned nothing else, I know this for certain: God wants our conversion more than we do. 

The Invitation

God is constantly inviting us into a relationship with him. He uses everything that happens to us, the good and the bad. The trouble is, we’re so busy being overwhelmed that we often miss his invitation. God invites us to turn to him, to bring our hurts, fears, past experiences, our everything to him in truth. This is what we mean when we talk about “conversion.” It will change your life…it changed mine. 

If you’ve not experienced conversion yet and would like to, I point to ways to help the process in my book, as identified last week. Happy to shoot them to you’d if you like. 

As always, please email me at Mark@MarkJosephMinistires.com with questions, comments, concerns, or prayer requests. 

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfilment!!!

Remember…God made you for Greatness!!!

Mark Joseph

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Weekly Blog

Trapped by Our Wounds

Many of us are overwhelmed by the wounds that we have. Just like tragedy, which we discussed last week, wounds are inevitable. We’re going to have them…all of us. The question or issue is…how do we allow them to impact us? 

Sometimes the things that hurt us are obvious, i.e., tragedies, accidents, painful relationships, or confrontations with other people — these things are all external and it’s easy to recognize them as the source of our hurt. Other wounds are much less obvious. They are often the scars caused by our own emotions sustained over a period of time, i.e., anger, sadness, anxiety, doubt, or fear, perhaps related to the hurts we’ve experienced, perhaps not. Emotional health demands that we become aware of these wounds so we can start the process of healing and moving forward. 

Trapped by Resentment

Resentment toward those who have hurt us can deepen and exacerbate our wounds, with most of us having experienced holding a grudge. Many are trapped and overwhelmed by resentment, it often consuming us. As pointed out last week, there’s a painfully true saying that resenting someone else is like swallowing poison and waiting for the other person to die. In reality, when you harbor resentment, the only person it really hurts is you. Even if the other person knows of it and feels its repercussions, the impact on them pales in comparison to the impact on you. Our resentment can negatively impact not only our view of the situation, but of the world we live in and the people around us.  

For quite a while, I was overwhelmed by my wounds and resentments, almost in disbelief that these seeming “injustices” could have happened to me. My first wife’s long struggle with alcoholism, the failure of our marriage, her death, the loss of my business … I experienced a range of emotions — sadness, despair, doubt, fear — and I remember being angry and bitter almost on a constant basis. It was real. It was penetrating. It hurt, sometimes almost physically. My resentments over these losses consumed me for a while. I felt very isolated, embarrassed to share the details with anyone. It was the most depressing time of my life. 

There is no question that people wrong us, hurt us, sometimes very deeply, whether with malice or not. But when we let this fact get in the way of us living with peace and joy, we only hurt ourselves. 

So how do we get out of habits of resentment and hurt? It is said that the first step in solving a problem is recognizing that there is one. We need to recognize the issues that plague us, many of which are the types of wounds referenced above. Self-discovery is an important step in healing. So is research and study in helping to find solutions. Healing might also require reaching out to someone like a friend or mentor, even a therapist. Our fear in facing our wounds can be massively diminished if we don’t try to go through it all alone. 

Time Heals all Wounds 

There is at least partial truth to the saying that time heals all wounds. It was true for me. As time went on, the pain diminished and healing began to set it. That said, time alone would not have moved me past my many resentments. It was critical that I take ownership of my role in each of the painful circumstances, recognizing that I bore real responsibility for what had happened to me. And that difficult realization took time. My old wounds of low self-esteem and low self-worth, having been unresolved to that point, added to the pain of these new wounds and fostered a lot of resentment. It wasn’t until I started the challenging process of fixing myself that I could humbly acknowledge my role in my circumstances and start to heal. You can do it too!!!

I look forward to continuing to accompany you on this journey. As always, please forward any questions, comments, concerns, or prayer requests to me at Mark@MarkJosephMinistries.com. 

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God made you for Greatness!!!

Mark Joseph

Categories
Weekly Blog

Keeping Prayer Practical

Hey *|FNAME|*,

How’s your prayer life? Up and down? Off and on? I’ve posted several times on prayer. All of us on this journey know how important prayer is…which doesn’t mean we’re always good at it. This week, I wanted to provide some simple tips on prayer that look to be very helpful.  My wife gets weekly emails from YouVersion, which you can be found at  https://www.youversion.com. It’s homepage states, “Find your rhythm. Draw closer to God”. Here’s their September 19th email post, which although very simple, is very insightful. It reads as follows:

Not sure what to pray for?

Talking to God doesn’t always feel easy, but if we want to know God more, then we need to know how to talk humbly and honestly with Him.
Here are three things that may encourage you as you draw near to God through prayer. Pick one or two points that stand out to you, and use them to create a Prayer in YouVersion.

1. Keep it simple.

God isn’t concerned about how eloquent your words sound—He just wants to spend time with you. Some of the best conversations with God happen when you simply share what’s on your mind and then give Him the space to respond.
Try asking:
God, what should I do about … ?
God, what do You think about … ?
God, would You … ?
God, why did this … ?

2. Keep it real.

God isn’t going to get mad at you for being honest, so be authentic when you pray. Remember, nothing can separate you from God’s love. So if you’re not sure what to say, tell God that. If you’re frustrated about a situation, say so. He wants you to approach Him with confidence and boldness.
Talk to God about a concern you have right now. Try saying:
I’m struggling with…
I need help with…
I don’t understand why…
I’m frustrated because…

3. Keep showing up.

Praying might feel awkward at first, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes. This week, continue to make prayer a habit by having at least a 5 minute conversation with God every day.
Here are some conversation starters:
I’m hoping for…
I’m thankful for…
I’m excited because…
Today, I noticed…

There’s nothing God desires more than you being in relationship with Him. And here’s the 

thing…there’s nothing that’s going to contribute more to your Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment. 

As always, please feel free to contact me at Mark@MarkJosephMinistries.com with questions, comments, concerns, challenges, or prayer requests.  

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God made you for GREATNESS!!!