As humans, we tend to focus on the job ahead, what we need to get done, either today or tomorrow, or next year. We notice what is currently left undone, and we try to correct the situation. But how often do we look back and see how far we have come? How often do we stop and appreciate not just what we failed to do, but what we succeeded in doing as well? Sometimes we are so determined to meet a particular goal that we fail to notice all that we have accomplished in the meantime. In other words, we negate the value of our own actions if they fail to live up to an artificial standard of one type or another, and in these moments we ourselves that we are not good enough, not strong enough, or smart enough or fast enough.

But God tells us something very different. You are my Beloved, God says to Jesus of Nazareth as he rises from the water, before Jesus has preached a single sermon or gained a single follower. You do not have to spend your life trying to be the best, to be perfect, to be successful, in order to be loved. God looks at all Creation, at the moment of the first spark, and says that it is good, lovely, beloved, now and always.

It is a large task, to give ourselves permission to know that we are loved even when we do not measure up to the standards that our set, by others or by ourselves. So perhaps we can begin by recognizing our successes, our accomplishments, not as "mere" accomplishments, but as tasks we can rejoice in. We can give thanks for the ability to contribute in our own individual way to the good of the world, in whatever ways are given to us to do. And that in turn may help us to realize that whatever we accomplish, and whatever we fail to accomplish, we are Beloved nonetheless.