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The world tells you who you are and what you should want. The world lies, so stop listening! Let God tell you what you are really worth.
What is Christianity like?
Have you ever had an illusion, an ideal, you hoped beyond reason was true? What lengths would you go to to make it true? Would you follow the trail, stand at the brink of reality, and leap over the edge if you knew you could find it there? That’s what Christianity is like. It's like finding out the broad stroke of all good things in the world has all along been painting the picture of your life. Christianity is realizing not only are you everything your innermost self has always wanted to be, you are even more, beyond what you can even comprehend.
Why do girls want to be princesses? Why do movies hone in on that secret desire that some long lost relative will show up and announce the main character as their royal heir to the throne? Is it just because we want to be chosen, we want to be special? Why do men surge and scheme for power? Is it just because they want wealth? Why has humanity, throughout centuries, done whatever it takes to rule? Is it just because they want dominion? Or is it because all these desires, these ideals are what we are destined for?
These are not abstract concepts conjured up by abstract people. These are your desires; these are your dreams. Why would a God create us to have such futile dreams, hopes, and desires? Why would He have us stand at the edge of a cliff, survey a sun setting over a vast ocean and place in our hearts this desire to see what is beyond? Because that is what He made us for.
Who wants to be the best at something, anything? You already are the best: Genesis tells us we are God’s masterpiece of the known universe. You are His culminating project. His final flourishing touch upon the universe.
Who wants to be in charge? You already are. God made you to literally rule the universe beside Him, along with Him. To share in His glory. Understand the weight of that sentence--You were made to share in His glory. Girl, you already are a princess and not of the sea or of some enchanted castle with the Beast, but of the universe and beyond. Men, you don't need to strive for power and recognition because you are heirs to the Kingdom of God. God is a creator. This is an integral aspect of His being. He has never stopped creating. How much more than is out there for us to discover, for us to rule and have dominion over?
Who wants to be understood and loved for what they are? If you have kids, you will understand: There is no benefit to having kids. Name one. Also, why do you love your kids? Think about it: if they had some other attributes (not cute, clever, or funny) would you love them less? What do they bring to the table? Nada. They take, baby! That’s what they do and yet, don’t we love them more than anything? In what other relationship could you possibly give so much and accept so little in return? Yet, you do so willingly! No question, no hesitation in laying down your life for the little life sucker (haha). Our love for them is relational, as in, their relation to us. They are our children, therefore we love them unconditionally. There is nothing my children could say or do to make me love them more. Sorry. Can’t win a title, game or score a grade or job that would make me love my kid more. They can’t earn my love, because my love is always there like the continual flow from the sun. On the flip side, they can’t make me love them any less either. A (healthy) parent’s love is constant, unwavering. We may be more or less proud of their actions, yet the love factor remains true.
In the same way, God loves you as a Father loves His child. He specifically created you and there is no one in the universe in any space or time that is like you. If you are alive it means there is a purpose for you that no one else in the universe could ever fulfill the way you can. Otherwise why make you? Why would you exist if someone on this earth in all of existence could fulfill the same purpose you will? Do you know God would have to re-create the whole Earth and all its inhabitants to create another you as you are now at this moment. Do you understand how specific you are? How meticulously crafted and curated you are, as a continually evolving work of art that’s sole purpose is to love God and share in His glory?
Which brings my analogy to a point: The reason we have children, their purpose is to love them and share our life with them. We love them because of the relationship we share. So what do children actually bring to the table? A chance for them to share in our love for them and to share our life with them.
**Side note** For those of you with parents that do not even have the right to own the title, you still have a Heavenly Father who loved you first. In order to love, you have to be loved. Never doubt it, you were loved first.
You are Christ's child, and what does that mean exactly? Well, you know that dream you think will never come true, that life you think only other people have, that image you think you will never live up to, that existence you think is too good to be true—God planted all of that within you when He created you. He didn’t create beings to desire these things in vain. The world has different ideas of how these dreams need manifest. Therein lies your continual disillusionment and disappointment. You are hanging your God given hopes and dreams on a world-defined manufactured lie. The rub is that God has for you all of the things you desire and are destined for, yet the enemy re-packages them as things you will never come close to attaining in his world. He has you chasing after your desires for relationships, knowledge, power, wealth, things that you are already entitled to as an heir of God, but the enemy twists those desires so that we define and view them through his world lens. We don’t think we have those things unless they are within the confines of worldly definitions.
Do you want meaningful relationships? You are the child of the I Am, the Alpha and Omega--literally the end all be all. Talk about a meaningful relationship.
Do you want an important career and power? You are the heir to the Kingdom of God, to rule and have dominion over all His creation and to be His emissary throughout the universe.
Do you want purpose? You were made to share and thrive in God’s glory, which are like rays of light from the ultimate source, in essence: God’s glory is all of the things that flow from Him (knowledge, power, wisdom, truth, adventure, creativity, innovation, love, science, culture, mercy, relationships, humor, joy, play, logic, and every “good” thing you can think of and all those that you can’t comprehend yet.) Yes, you get to share in THAT.
So, I have to ask: What have you done with your life lately that exemplifies the way God sees you? Whatever your answer is, you were meant for more.
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