EVER FELT LIKE DAMAGED GOODS…

As a boy, I wasn’t the most handsome. I wasn’t exactly athletic either. Nor was I the brightest student in the class. I often felt like I was standing on the outside looking in.

Lonely. At times angry. Frequently disappointed. Always less than.

While others reported dreams of becoming doctors, lawyers, or scientists, I would quietly state, “I want to be a preacher.”

I believed God could use everyone else. But I wasn’t so sure about me.

Here’s what I have come to discover after all these years… I wasn’t alone.

I once sat with a seminary student who whispered, “Thank you for giving me time. No one ever cared enough to listen to me.”

I’ve walked beside a young East African pastor whose own father gave him a name that means… “Nothing good will come out of you.” Imagine carrying those words every day of your life.

Perhaps no one ever named you that. But somewhere along the journey, you began to believe it.

Then Jesus met me in Matthew 11.

“Come to Me… you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest… for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Mt 11:28-29).

Think about it… gentle.

• Not condemning.

• Not shaming.

• Not reminding me of all I wasn’t.

Gentle.

And then He said something almost too wonderful to believe:

“I have called you friends” (John 15:15).

Everything changed.

Jesus never asked me to earn my worth. He just invited me into His presence.

If today you feel forgotten… overlooked… unwanted… or like damaged goods, hear the voice of Jesus above every other voice that has ever spoken over your life.

• You are INVITED.

• You are KNOWN.

• You are LOVED.

• You are MY FRIEND.

The world may measure your value by what you have accomplished or accumulated.

Jesus measures your value by what He was willing to pay to redeem you.

And the Cross forever settled that question.