 Hey guys, it's Isaac. I hope you're doing well. I wanted to pop in here and I don't know, just something, God play something on my heart this week that I wanted to share with you. And it's something that I've been thinking about and thinking about tonight, it is about exactly 12 o'clock at night and my city that I live in is still locked up for the coronavirus and I can't really go anywhere. And so I've been cooped up and I've been thinking a lot about productivity. It got me thinking about you guys. Like over the last couple of weeks I've been getting some DMs and stuff like that, just like some of you guys asking me to pray for you because you're doing, you know, there's finals coming up, there's deadlines, right? And especially in this time of life, like I feel it, right? I'm 21 and I know a lot of you guys are in that same age demographic. Like it feels like there's a lot of things like you're trying to figure out your life and maybe you're at university or you're just trying to get in, you know, you're foot in the door at a job you actually like or you're trying to build your business. You're trying to figure out your life, right? And I know there's obviously a lot more pulls as you get older, like kids, family, marriages, all that stuff, but even at this age it feels like a lot, right? And a lot of us, let me just speak from my personal experience in the mornings. When I wake up, right? I'm partially self-employed and then partially I'm out of work right now because of the coronavirus. So when I wake up, my main goal is to like optimize the day as much as possible. Like I'm thinking productivity, right? Like scheduling everything so I make the most of the day and there's kind of this like, that's a good sentiment, right? And there's this veneer in front of it that this is good and this is responsible, right? But what I wanna get to the heart of in our productivity and how we approach productivity is that there's something behind that, right? We gotta understand the fuel that's fueling that productivity because at least in my life and I think based on what I've posted in the past and your guys' responses, I think it's pretty widespread that shame tends to fuel our productivity. And it does that because when we have kind of unresolved shame, right, for the non-believer, they actually do like legitimately have unresolved shame because that that shame still rests on them. They have not found a savior, the savior that will take that shame off of them. And for the believer, it's like we have yet to truly step into the reality that Jesus has already taken that shame upon himself because when we still have that shame resting on us, when we don't step into that new reality, that new identity that we are free from that shame, we feel as though we can do something to resolve it. And often that comes down to work. It comes down to productivity, like proving myself to make up, to do something to make up for what I have done. And it's this kind of never ending cycle of trying to prove myself to God and prove myself to others and gain other people's love and acceptance because there's this deep seated guilt and shame that is yet to be resolved. And I think that's the case for a lot of us. And if that, I want you to search your heart to see if that's the case for you because I think you may find, look, there's some unresolved shame here. I still feel like I need to prove myself to God. And that's what's leading me to really just like treat productivity as an idol, as if it is my savior, as if it is the delivering force that's gonna get me to the place where I can feel good about my life, where I can feel like I'm enough finally. And I think there's something that I wanted to talk about for a while in terms of like this idea of whether we are enough, right? Because within kind of Christianity as a whole, even on social media, you'll get two very different messages, right? You'll get the message like, you are not enough. You are a garbage. Like you are not like a worm before God, right? And then you get the message that you are enough. Like you're perfect just the way you are and you don't need to change anything and you're just great, right? And this is what I wanna say to that. In the moral sense, we are not enough. We see that in the Bible, Romans 3, 23, for all of a sudden fall short of the glory of God. We have fallen short of God's standard and we are not enough in that sense, right? But then there's another sense that I wanna reaffirm that God has, for the believer, he has invited you into his family, that he has given you a new identity. And through Christ, you are enough to accomplish what he has for you, right? And notice I said through Christ. Like this isn't absent from Christ, but it's just to say that you're not a piece of garbage, right? You're not just like a useless piece of trash. Like that's not true. God wants to use you. And in that sense, he has equipped you and he has made you in his image. And he hasn't left things out there. He is going to prepare you and to provide what you need to accomplish those things. But this productivity idea that we can somehow prove ourselves to God on our own or that we can make up and really just kind of resolve the shame on our own. Like it's a really, it's just a lackluster attempt to be saved from all that is wrong within us. Because when you accomplish something, you feel good. Like I think that's by design. That's God designed that when you're productivity and you're just feeling good and excited and you feel good about yourself. Like I'm getting things done. Like this is meaningful. I'm doing something worthwhile. Like I have value because I produce something. But then when you don't, when you don't have the, you know, like today, right? I woke up today and I got up a little bit later than I wanted to. Already felt like trash. Like how could I do this? Like I'm such a piece of garbage. Like whoa, like I should get up earlier. I'm wasting this time. And then I try to start working and then I have no ideas and I'm in like a mental fog. And that shouldn't be the case, right? Our self worth and all that shouldn't be just attached to what grade we get, what our paycheck looks like, how much we produce, all those things, all the things that we wanna do and become and who we are, that should all be an outflowing of our identity. And when our identity isn't tethered to Christ, to Jesus, to what he has done, we are on sinking sand. So whether we're trying to resolve this, this unresolved shame or guilt in our heart or trying to find some sort of sense of purpose or meaning, if our identity isn't tethered to the one who created me, I'll always be disconnected from who I'm supposed to be. And that's why when you think about productivity, I want you to continue to reaffirm who you are in Christ when you're doing your homework, when you're doing your work for the day. Understand this, that that work does not define you, that the results of that work do not define you, that people's perspective of that work does not define you. That is only Christ. It is only Christ who defines you. And because of that, we can approach every single situation, every task, every opportunity with joy, knowing that even if we experience negativity, rejection, all that stuff, we can handle it because our identity isn't intricately connected to those things, it's connected to Christ. And people can't shake that. They can't break that connection. They may break my connection with my work or my connection with my influence or my connection with my paycheck, but they can't break my connection with God. And that is what will sustain us. That's what I wanted to share with you guys today. I hope you found that helpful, encouraging, all that. Leave me a comment down in the comments because that's where you put comments with your thoughts on all this. I'd love to hear from you. I so enjoy getting to talk to you guys every single week. And if you wanna help support my ministry that is all dedicated to helping you follow Jesus daily, head on over to patreon.com slash daily underscore disciple. We have 25 patrons right now. The goal is to get to 50 patrons by the end of the year. And by supporting me five bucks a month, you can help me get closer to that goal. Thank you so much guys and I will see you next time. God bless.