Every human wants to be seen.  We have a desire to know the significance of who we are, what we do and who we do life with, in short, that we matter.  Sometimes, we feed that desire to be seen by watching others perfected highlight reels and coming up short, even with the progress we’ve made in our lives.  This only leads to a cycle of frustration of feeling underpaid, under pressure and undervalued.

We welcomed a special guest at VOUS in Pastor Mike Todd, who reminded us that God specializes in small things first.  He showed us what a mature Christian looks like from Psalm 1 in his message titled Planted and Undervalued.  Though God likened us to a tree, he doesn’t plant us as such, but as a seed.  And, there’s a process between the seed being sown and the tree fully formed in bearing fruit.

Pastor Mike challenged us to shift our perspective about difficult seasons where we feel buried with our gifts instead of planted, as we develop not only our gifts but our character. That we dig deep during those times to not allow our pain of not being seen to prevent us from producing and when we produce, doing so for purpose and not for approval. 

He shared Leah’s story from Genesis 29, a woman neither valued by her father nor her husband.  Though God blessed her with the ability to conceive, she couldn't see the blessing of each of the first three children but focused on her misery, waiting for her husband’s validation until the fourth – Judah.  Then Leah praised God even without the change in family’s attitude towards her. The same should be said of us – that we turn our pain into praise knowing we’re producing for an audience of one.