"Like Ruthie Foster, I think it’s time to embrace our “phenomenalness”. Oh, I’m not saying we should all start bragging about ourselves, or taking on overly-inflated opinions of ourselves, but what’s wrong with believing that God made us beautiful and talented and phenomenal? Sure we’re all flawed – that’s a given – but we all have within us the seeds of great potential. Believing otherwise is doubting God’s design and ability to work through us."*
(*borrowed from Heather-the-phenomenal )
I was more than a little pleased to come across Heather's thoughts over at Fumbling for Words this morning. I agree that the Christian community, especially in the past, has confused humility with self-deprication and stunted women in their potential to impact the world. We have only so many hours in a day, and a limited number of days in the week. How much of that time should we spend on wishing we looked different, smelled different, had someone else's giftings? I've always loved Paul's model of the church, likened to the parts of the human body:
"... we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't."
I think this year for lent, I'm going to give up self-depracating thoughts and spoken words. Not only will I seek out beauty in others, I will recognize my own. I will make choices stemming from an honest estimation of my God-given gifts and abilities. I will begin to practise what Paul teaches in Romans 12.
"God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life- your sleeping, eating, going-to-work and walking-around life- and place it before God as an offering.... You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."
Now, that's phenomenal!
10 comments:
that's very interesting. i made a pact with myself about one month ago that i would no longer look at my body critically, ever. i would not engage.
it's been... nice.
love the orange,
love ruthie,
love the sentiment today.
thanks,
heather
Just wanted to stop by and tell you that I loved this post. We can all benefit from these words and live by them. I got your blog from live from the eagles nest. She always has nice blogs on her comment section to visit. I love reading your blog, but dont' always take the time to comment. Hope its ok that I stop by. If you want to stop by mine, you are more than welcome too.
You go girl! Be phenomenal!
In your lenten season, you may want to consider a book I'm quite fond of called "The Gift of Being Yourself". I think I'll write about it in my next post.
Oh my. You've spruced the place up since I was last here. Can I get your decorator's phone number?
Here's a phrase that so mirrors yours and Heather's posts:
"We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone." - Marianne Williamson
thanks for the reminder...loving who we are is definetly a struggle for all of us, though I must say, as I get older, it's getting easier...Lindalew
Yes, you're so right. And I love that quote above about not "playing smaller".
Love your new look, too.
This little light of mine...
OK I know that the collective 'others' sometimes wished that I smelled different and I often wish that I had other people's gifts, especially at Christmas, but if we didn't have our ego governors on, and we were all fabulous, who and what would we talk about?
My basic beef with the theory of reincarnation is that after Millenia of do-gooders being recycled into higher beings, by now through the miracle of compound interest, there would be a glut of uber people who have it all together that would stick out like a sore thumb...and we would be enraged with jealousy and we would give them the chance to be reincarnated again.
We just need to be very selective about when and where to expose all of our flaws.
People who think they have it all over the likes of us, like movie stars, politicians and school trustees, are drifting in the Sea of Denial, but they have enough PMA to write off their vacation as a business expense.
great post, joyce!!
and i love the new look!!
i think finding a hat for $1.74 is pretty phenomenal! don't you? ;)
your post lite up my heart. thanks!
Post a Comment