Few days ago, I was feeling feeling discouraged, disappointed and disillusioned with myself, and in my faith. Sort of makes me feel alienated from God. And that makes me resort to self-condemnation, because, I reason, God is holy and righteous. He knows all the corners of my life, even the dark ones. How can he even like me, let alone love me?

So, I had a conversation with Daisy.

"Paul," says she to me, "God accepts you with all your warts, moles and abrasions of soul. He loves you regardless of how you see yourself.

"Whoa!" I responded, "How could a holy, righteous God be wrong? He knows what a jerk I am. Yet, He created me. He knew how I would turn out even before He did that. Then He let me live a life full of mistakes and hiccups. How could He have done that? Why would He have done that?"

Daisy shakes her head at my denseness.

"You miss the point, my loving human. The point of this question is . . . Now, are you ready for this old man? The point is . . . Since God cannot be wrong, how could he have been wrong about you? You think He made a mistake, a bad investment, so to speak, where you are concerned?

"So you consider yourself a failure -- but God does not. You may, because of your indiscretions, or outright evil, think that you do not deserve, that you are not worthy of God's favor, yet he thinks otherwise, yet he favors you -- regardless of what you think about it, regardless of your human logic and moralizing about yourself. You're pretty good at that stuff. "I mean like, you've been to Christian university, and two seminaries! Like Adam, you've gorged yourself with the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You know this theology stuff! Right? If you don't, what were you doing in all those academic classes, playing games on your cellphone?"

"Now to this self-deprecating notion that, "You are not worthy . . ." Look at what God has paid for you! Go ahead, take a really good look! See his Son crucified on a Roman cross. That is what God thought you are worth. How then can you say, 'I am not worthy?'"

"Maybe you've got tons of reasons to feel unworthy. So many that you may rationally conclude that you actually are unworthy. I mean, look at the facts; e.g., your screwed-up life.

"But there is another set of facts that say something entirely different. Here is an irreducible, immutable factoid, Paul: God paid an infinite, terrible and costly price for you, and you can't escape the raw reality that -- this is how much you are worth to God!

"Oh I know how you think. I've lived with you for 12 years now. You think, 'Yeah, but Jesus died for the whole world. Not just for me.'

"Ok. But think about it.

"Suppose it was 'just for you?' Suppose you were the only person alive at the time, do you think Jesus would have died only for you? I know you may think that is cliche, something for a baby believer, but go ahead . . .

"Deal with that a second.

"The answer is inescapable, and it is 'YES!' He would have died just for you. And that, dear human, is the measure of God's love for you and the value he places on you as an individaul.

"You use instruments of measure all the time: Clocks, digital watches, ohmmeters, meat thermometers, 1-foot rulers, yardsticks, centimeters, meters, etc. When you say how much you love your kids, you throw our arms open wide and say, "th-i-i-i-s much!"

"What about the cross? Isn't that an instrument of measure?

"Think about it!"

So I did. Pretty smart puppy!

The psalmist asks the question, "What gain is there in your being marginalized?" Good question.

For God, there is zero profit in such a thing. I can be sure that God knows exactly where to invest his resources. He has chosen me, and invested the massive, time shattering death of his Son as collateral for that choice. Do I really think he is going to dump me when my spiritual, rational or emotional "Dow-Jones" plunges, or takes a dip?

Hardly.

After listening to Daisy for awhile, I began to loosen up, and with the psalmist can say with joy, "Oh Lord you really do like me." Sometimes like is better than love. You can act lovingly toward someone you don't like, but you rarely like someone you don't love at some level. God likes as much as he loves. He makes the landfill that is your life grow into a mountain to stand strong.

A mountain.

Not a landfill! Not trash! Not dust!

Eveyone should have a Daisy in their house.