One of my favorite Don Miller ideas is the “lifeboat mentality.” In Searching For God Knows What, he talks about this exercise they did in elementary school where a bunch of people are on a lifeboat, and one has to be thrown out for the survival of the remaining. There’s a doctor, a teacher, a lawyer, etc. Who do you throw out? Obviously, whoever is “least valuable” will be sacrificed.

Don goes on to see this “lifeboat mentality” worked out in our lives, that we are constantly comparing ourselves to those around us to make sure we’re better than them. That way we won’t get thrown out of the cultural lifeboat. This gives way to us being frustrated when someone wastes our time, or we get angry when someone cuts us off. Anything that is perceived as saying, “I’m better than you,” we become furious.

But as Christians, if we really find our worth in who God says we are, we should never get mad, angry, or frustrated with people that damage our self-worth. It’s not their place to damage it, because our worth comes from God.

Reality is, I feel the pain of that damage all the time, and Katie can attest to the fact that I become defensive, angry, and bitter. In a similar way, I think we look around and see those who reject God being successful and affluent, when our own lives may be marked with suffering and hardship. Again comes defensiveness, anger, bitterness, and maybe even lack of trust or faith in God. What a sweet reminder Psalm 37 has been:

Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.
Cease from anger and forsake wrath;
Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.
For evildoers will be cut off,
But those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land.

If we really rest and wait patiently for what God is doing, we’ll save ourselves a world of heartache and evildoing.