My last post was published October 25. Yikes, that was awhile ago! Lately, I’ve started several posts and then hit a wall. My thoughts got stuck. I’m hoping to revisit those posts soon and complete them. Until then, I wanted to write down some thoughts on uniqueness.
You are unique, and you were created for a unique and specific purpose.
If you are a Christian, you may have heard the term “self-help Gospel.” The term has a negative connotation to it. It’s used to describe a type of preaching and teaching that is all about being our best selves. It’s true, the Bible isn’t an instruction manual. It’s more of a story. It’s a story about the relationship between God and His creation. It’s a story about how creation has responded to God in both good and bad (but a lot of bad) ways. It’s a story about how more people were brought and are being brought into the family of God through Jesus.
From what I’ve gathered, the Biblical narrative is all about God redeeming a wayward creation. It’s all about what God has done, is doing, and our response to that. It’s about God and us.
This forest view brings me to this idea: my best self exists when my relationship with God is thriving. When I am seeking and surrendering to His will, that is when I am becoming who I was created to be, because we were created for relationship with God. When I am living out of my own power, when I forget that God is there, when my task list becomes the ruler of my day then I am not my best self. I lose track of who God says I am and who and what I was created for. I begin to define myself outside of God. For me, this is almost always negative. I’m not doing enough, I’m lazy, and I’m a failure.
Check this out, though:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:8-10 NIV
We are God’s handiwork, created in Jesus to do good work, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Wow. Everytime I read that, it blows me away! The Creator created us to work with Him. He created us to feed the hungry, care for the homeless, free the oppressed, bring hope to the hopeless, and the list goes on. We all know the world is broken. God wants His people to be healers.
That’s going to look different for all of us. It’s going to look different between you and me. That’s not bad. It’s good! In the journey of becoming more like Christ, we are still going to look and be different. God didn’t create robots. He created us! He wants to use our quirks and idiosyncrasies. He doesn’t just want the presentable parts. He wants it all! God can make our unpresentable parts presentable. He can turn darkness into light!
My best self exists when it is connected to God. It is then that I begin to be who He created me to be. I don’t see it as a self-help Gospel. I see it as a God-connected Gospel. If our Creator created us in His own likeness, and He creates good things, then we are meant to create good things in kind. We are meant to create things that bring healing and wholeness, not separation and brokenness.
This brings the question where in my life am I bringing healing and wholeness? Where am I bringing separation and brokenness? How am I loving others? Where am I acting selfishly? Am I relying on God? Am I connecting with Him, daily? Or have I relagated God to be a back seat driver?
musingsonlife 