Have you ever had to fill out a “Self-Evaluation Form” at your place of employment?  Aren’t those just the best of times?  Because you know that, very soon, you will be sitting across from your boss/supervisor, who will be looking at the “Self-Evaluation Form” you prepared on yourself, and comparing it with the “Evaluation Form” that he or she has filled out on you.  Any differences will be the subjects of deep and difficult conversation, and so this could lead you to a hyper-critical view of your own abilities and performance as you fill out your form – or at least it did for me when these moments came about.        

And, don’t bosses have amazing memories?  When it comes to your failures, even failures that occurred years ago, they are just like elephants – they never forget.  But at the very same time, they can seem to have no memory, or a faulty memory, when it comes to your successes.  

Look, I get it – the number one task on every employee’s job description is to make the boss look good.  It is taken for granted when the employee accomplishes this; and it is never forgotten when the employee fails. 

Still, this almost puts the employer and employee into an adversarial position in which each is looking out for their own best interests instead of the best interests of the company.  Don’t you wish there was a better way?

“I was reminded the other day of a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, the famous poet and thinker of the 19th Century, who said,

“We are all entitled to be valued by our best moments.”

Don’t you love that?  Isn’t that just the opposite of how [some] bosses, and many regular people, think of us?  If we’re being honest, isn’t that just the opposite of how we think of [some] others?  Sadly, isn’t that just the opposite of how we sometimes think of ourselves?  

As great as Emerson’s idea is of how humans should live together, aren’t you thankful that this is not how God values us?  Instead, through Jesus Christ, we are valued by God - not by our worst moments, and not even by our best moments - but by the best “eternal moment” of His Son.  God has no memory of our millions of failures [Hebrews 8:12], and as the prophet Isaiah says, even our “best moments” are like filthy rags [Isaiah 64:6] when compared to the holiness that God requires.  But, when we are in Christ, God values us the same way He values His Son, which is to say, beyond measure.

I’m not sure we completely understand this.  Because, if we did, we would surely realize that since God values us beyond measure, we must value everyone we meet, ourselves included, in exactly this same way.  That means I need to change some things.  How about you?  Lord, give us the will and the strength to value all people the way You do.   

Ambrose K. Ramsey III

Shepherd