American minister Lisa Bevere feels ashamed to remember the "sadly true and embarrassingly ridiculous story" of how she acted when she found out she was not included in the list of top 100 female ministers in America.
She is sharing that story nonetheless in the hopes of encouraging people to seek affirmation not from society, but from God.
Bevere writes in an article for Charisma News that she first saw the list from her Twitter feed. She says she wanted very much to be a part of the elite group Unfortunately, however, her name was not included.
"Scanning the names, it wasn't long before I realised I had not made the list. Just about everyone else I knew was on it. People I had mentored made the list. Someone who translates my books into Spanish had made the list," she says.
She began to question how in the world she was not included in the list since she had more than a million books sold and over two decades of travelling and ministering to countless women among her achievements.
When she told her husband about it, all he gave her were a few verses to review. "This was not the response I was looking for!" she recalls. "No sympathy was going to be found in the company of my husband. I stormed out of his office yelling, 'I don't need to read those Bible verses to know I am wrong! I know I am wrong! But knowing I am wrong doesn't make this feel right!'"
But after calming down and talking to God about it, Bevere realised she approached the scenario wrongly. "When we look to others for our affirmation, we will always feel as though we are on the outside looking in. There is but one true measure, the immeasurable Christ," she says. "God alone understands what causes the quaking of a woman's heart. He alone knows how to calm the frenzy of women in pajamas who forget to still their souls before comparison comes to steal their peace."
So every time people find themselves going crazy over something insubstantial, just like Bevere did, she hopes they will turn to God instead.
"There is no lifetime achievement, list, or award that can ever write with assurance the words God alone can scribe on your heart," she says.
