Growing up, I played a lot of basketball in my driveway.  My friends would come over and we would play 2 on 2 or 1 on 1 or, my favorite game of all – 21. 

If you’re unfamiliar, 21 is a game played with as many people as you want, but it’s every person for themself.  The winner is the first to get to 21 points, but there are a variety of ways to do that and even ways for your opponents to reduce your score.  

The other fun thing about 21 is that there are so many variations of the rules. In my driveway, we had a specific rule that really was just a way to try and keep the game going.  The rule was called “Prove it”.  If you were able to reach 21 points the game did NOT immediately end, instead you had to “Prove it”; you had to prove that you were worthy of the victory by backing up beyond the 3 point line and making one final jump shot.  If the shot went it, you won that game, but if you missed, your score was reduced to 13 and play continued. 

I think this “Prove it” mentality is all too common in our world today.  Everyone seems to be working hard to justify their place at the table, their importance, their intelligence, their skill.  Social media is this never ending flood of people shouting “look at me!” trying to prove to all their followers that they matter.  

It’s honestly heartbreaking when you really stop to think about it.  So many people are walking around thinking that they aren’t good enough, that they need to prove their worth in one way or another.  And worse still is the cry of people of color in this country of Black Lives Matter.  A whole movement has been born that is seeking to prove that the lives of people of color actually matter because there is so much evidence showing that is not the case.

There’s a passage in the Gospels where, right after being baptized, Jesus goes to the wilderness and is tempted by the devil.  Each time the devil tempts Jesus he says  “if you really are the Son of God…” the devil is asking Jesus to “Prove it” and every time Jesus resists because proving our worth is not the way of God.   People are shouting “Black Lives Matter” because there are so many systems in our society that have been saying for hundreds of years “prove to us that you belong here”.  There are millions of people battling depression and anxiety and low self-esteem because they have heard voices saying “prove you’re good enough”.  

Jesus never says “Prove it”.  Jesus said, “I came that you may have life and life abundantly.” Jesus welcomed the sinners and the tax collectors and the prostitutes and Judas.   When Jesus called his disciples he simply said, “Follow me.” 

We are all children of God, and nothing can take that away from us.  The voices of evil tell us to “Prove it” but the voice of Jesus simply says, “As the Father has loved me, so I love you.”