I am confident of this: that the one who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus ––Philippians 1:6 NCB
We’ve heard it a thousand times: Our identity as Jesus followers is based on who we are, not on what we do. We are hidden with Christ in God, and seated with Christ in the heavenlies. We are His redeemed, forgiven, heaven-bound children. That’s our identity.
Now comes the hard part for God’s man: authentically and consistently living in that identity. The key is mimicking the Master—pursuing mastery over performance. Here’s a great way to wrap your head around it: performance-based living is valued by outside forces, while mastery living is valued by inner forces. Think of someone you know who has mastered their craft—Tom Hardy or Emily Blunt in the acting world; Steph Curry or LeBron James; Christian McCaffrey or Patrick Mahommes. At some point along the road to becoming a master of their specific craft, each of these people had to shift from a “what do others think about me?” mindset to a “what do I think about myself?” mentality. When that shift happened, they could then identify their craft and master it, rather than crafting an identity based on others’ approval.
This inside-out job is a lifetime endeavor—mastery can take decades, to be honest (well, maybe not for Patrick Mahommes, but definitely for most of us). The contrast is clear:
- Performance goals emphasize demonstrating competence to peers; mastery goals emphasize developing personal competence.
- Performance demands results; mastery produces results.
- Performance is rated by others; mastery is rated by oneself.
- Performance seeks external reward; mastery is its own reward.
- Performance builds identity based on outside forces; mastery builds identity built on inside forces.
Every four years about this time the summer Olympics roll around and we watch mastery in action. We see athletes perform under extreme pressure—and succeed. We say, “How can they do so well knowing a billion or more people are watching?” The answer—which is a central part of modern sports psychology—has to do with a mastery mentality. They set internal goals, make them their primary concern, and hyper-focus on those goals to achieve.
Ultimately, a purely performance-driven sense of worth will let you down. Jesus, of course, was the ultimate Master on earth. He achieved every single goal given to Him by His Father, and failed in none of them. Was He wealthy or adored by the influential? No. But He was the most successful person to ever live, according to the inner mission God gave Him: “And he died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sakes died and was raised to life.” (2 Corinthians 5:15).
Father, my I set internal goals to master based on the example of the one true Master, Your son Jesus.
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6 Colossians 3:3; Ephesians 2:6.
7 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0361476X18303084#:~:text=Now%20ov
er%20four%20decades%20old,demonstrating%20competence%20relative%20to%20peers.
