Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous -- and how well I know it. ~ Psalm 139:14 (NLT)
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You know, the human body itself is one of the easiest exhibits for intelligent design that I know of! I am constantly amazed whenever I watch a medical documentary. Just ponder how the human eye works, or the circulatory system, not to mention the brain! It's all very incredible, and our God designed it. He is amazingly complex, isn't He?
And then there is you. And me. On top of the fascinating complexities of our physical anatomy, God created "us". Our individual personalities, our likes/dislikes, our limitations, our abilities. God designed our personhood uniquely! And yet...we often don't like what we see in the mirror, do we? We sometimes wonder what in the world God was thinking when He made us. We have personal expectations that we don't live up to, we don't look like a supermodel, we stumble and fall in our walk with the Lord again and again. We are our own worst critic, aren't we?
What can we do to fully embrace the whole person that God made us to be? Where is the contentment in who we are?
Years ago I started (but never got very far) a book by Robert S. McGee, entitled The Search for Significance. I just picked it up today to offer a few quotes, and I think I will commit to reading it through. Very insightful regarding our misdirected attempts at gaining a positive self-worth, and I highly recommend it (actually, Billy Graham is quoted on the cover, saying this book 'should be read by every Christian.') Here are the first two paragraphs from the introduction...
"When Christ told His disciples, You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32), He was referring not only to an intellectual assent to the truth, but also to the application of truth in the most basic issues of life: our goals, our motives, and our sense of self-worth. Unfortunately, many of us give only lip-service to the powerful truths of the Scriptures without allowing them to affect the basis of our self-esteem in a radical way. Instead, we continue to seek our security and purpose from worldly sources: personal success, status, beauty, wealth, and the approval of others. These rewards may fulfill us for a short time, but they soon lead us to a sense of urgency to succeed and be approved again.
To meet these compelling needs, we drive ourselves to achieve, doing virtually anything to make people happy with us, and spend countless hours and dollars trying to look "just right." Often, we avoid situations and people where the risks of failure and rejection are high. It's a rat race that can't be won by simply running faster. We need to get off of this hopeless treadmill, and learn to apply the foundational truths that can motivate us to live for Christ rather than for the approval of other people."
God says, I made you and I love you. Isn't that enough for you? We must hang our heads and confess to Him that it isn't enough. That we have a hard time loving ourselves just because He loves us. That we seek the world for love and favor just like the Israelites sought after other gods (throughout the Old Testament), just like Gomer sought after other men after Hosea married her (book of Hosea) [which God used as a living example of how His people rejected Him].
I used to not like who I was, I think mostly because a significant person in my life did not like who I was. I then assumed that view of myself for myself. God has done a mighty work in my life in the last 10 years, so that I can embrace who I am, even if it doesn't fit the mould that society embraces. Even if it doesn't fit the mould that churchianity embraces. I am me, and I am good with me, because God is good with me. I am real and authentic before Him, not trying be what I'm not nor covering up what I am. That is extraordinary freedom, my friends! And I hope you can know that kind of freedom also with the loving God who created you.
Love,
Joelene
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