Performance Weights

We live in a world that places a lot of pressure on us to perform in order to be accepted. The education system grades you, the sports world ranks you, the business sector evaluates you, social media likes you and marketing platforms entice you. These are a lot of pressure hooks that can result in you carrying heavy weights, should you choose to pick them up.

The biggest lie that the enemy wants you to believe is that your value is directly correlated to your performance results. This is what I like to call ‘performance weights’ – the weight of having to earn your value. Performance weights can look like this:

If I achieve, then I am worthy enough.
If I am accepted, then I am loveable enough.
If I succeed, then I am significant enough.

The problem is, will it ever be enough?

The reality is that once you reach the top, you have to carry the ‘weight’ of having to defend yourself at the top, as everyone around you becomes a threat to your position. This results in a lifestyle of comparison and competitiveness, where others tend to be viewed as threats and not as friends.

In 1 Corinthians 3:6–8, Paul is clear when he says that it is our responsibility to be faithful to work hard. (Note, he never said performing hard.) Hard work is not the problem. Rather, the problem arises when we chase the fruit; when we believe that the fruit determines our worth and that the fruit is our responsibility to attain. So, what happens when the fruit doesn’t appear quickly enough or doesn’t appear at all? Often, we believe that we have no value.

Years ago, I used to play the drums professionally in a band in the UK. One day, I asked the rest of the band this question: When have we made it? Have we made it when we’ve sold out a gig? Have we made it when we’ve recorded an album? Have we made it when we’re playing at Glastonbury? Or is ‘making it’ the contentment that we experience from hard work in rehearsals, from making memories as friends on road trips, from watching someone rock out to a new song that we’ve performed?

Hebrews 12:1 tells us clearly to strip off the weights that slow us down. I believe that performance weights can slow you down and prevent you from living freely in the fullness of knowing your value that is found in Christ. Ephesians 2:8 reminds us that our salvation is a gift from God, so we can’t boast in it. In other words, you can’t earn it, nor can you perform in order to receive it. This gift is based on the value that God has already placed on you.

Take some time to ask yourself the following questions, to help you to discern whether performance weights are wearing you down:

• Am I driven by a need to perform?

• Is this need fuelled by fear or by passion?

• Is this mentality bringing me joy or stress?

• Is this mentality filling my cup or draining it?

• What is my mindset around my worth?

• Do I live like my worth is based on success and status?

• Is my workload bringing me enjoyment or dread?

• Is my workload bringing me satisfaction or discontentment?

Continue reading this devotional at Bible.com.