“ Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves.”
I Peter 3:3-4
Got a new haircut yesterday and with it much attention. So many compliments it makes me dizzy! My inner bohemian that has been slowly oozing out over the last few years has officially broken out of hiding and I feel creative, very sexy and beautiful. And I LIKE the attention!
I sat with God with this this morning, fearing my pride and vanity. I asked Him, “Lord, do I need to be humbled? Maybe should I go bathing suit shopping?” He gave me the above verse this morning as one of His responses. Funny thing . . . it wasn't in a “Knock it off!” tone at all! I heard it in an entirely new light. (Actually, this whole passage written around wives submitting to their husbands is quite exciting in this new light. It is a passage heavy with religious baggage that I really believe robs women of the intended freedom it offers. But that is a whole can of beans for another time!) He was pointing me back to where my beauty comes from, not telling me my outward adornment or feeling beautiful on the outside was wrong. In fact, you need not look too hard to find that God is really quite into unabashed and powerful beauty; oceans and thunderstorms being two such examples. He was encouraging me and reminding me of the deeper inspirations for this haircut.
For me the haircut is an expression of the inner freedom and beauty that I have in Christ. It is what gave me the boldness to chop my hair off in the first place! Really. A cut like this would have scared me even a month ago. It feels powerful, in a way, and seems to me to make a bold statement. Other women I have known can pull it off, but I never felt I could. Could it be a rebellious act to chop your hair; a way to prove power and independence? Well sure it could. It depends on the heart motive. That is not my story. I have so often been paralyzed with fear over what others would think of me in so many areas of my life that it has often caused me to be timid in places God was clearly leading. But Jesus is working in deep places in my inner self that resemble the story of Rapunzel in the Disney movie "Tangled".
Rapunzel left a safe tower built by fear and control. She had a severe codependency on that which really stole from her though it looked and felt like love and security. When she jumped from the tower out into the unknown wild, she discovered her real identity, the love of her real family, and the freedom to live and be a strong leader in her Father's Kingdom. In the movie her haircut represented her inner life, freedom, love, and the sacrifice that freed her from her slavery. (Hmmm . . . kinda gospelish?)
And so you see the verse He gave me today was Him expressing His delight in my beauty, both inner and outer. I want to scream my delight in Him out to the world and say, in unabashed confidence, “I am beautiful because Christ delights in ME!!!” It is a funny thing that happens to my pride when I soak in His delight for a period of time. This performance driven, people-praise seeking girl begins to care less what others say or don't say because the glory of that people-praise pales so to the glory of the beautiful Him who adores me more than anyone can. I can have a quiet, confident, God-reverent spirit resting in the truth that He is at work making me like himself. And He is quite unsettling, so if everyone likes me, maybe there is something wrong! I become a woman who's pride is in His delight and glory and who rests in his ability to mold me into a dangerous beauty. I might even be a bit vain about it!
This is not a new growth spurt for me. I've been here before and have really only begun to quit reacting to this repeated growth with the thought, “Again, Lord? Geesh, I should have learned this by now!” No. His growth process may feel like a never ending circle, but is is actually a spiral going ever deeper with each rotation. It seems He keeps leading me to discover new pieces of me stuck in towers. And Jesus beckons to those pieces of me in hiding and dares them to leave the tower with Him. The invitation comes again and again.
Such is the life lived in relationship with Christ. Ever deeper living into all He has done for us. And this is not about hard work and striving, trying harder to change outer behavior and appearance. It is way more about resting and trusting and following the Prince into the great outdoors of his freedom, grace and love. It is real inner change that lasts. (A gentle, quite spirit that rests in Christ's strength can look pretty dangerous from the outside!)
Tonight I will likely find myself reviewing my compliments on facebook and admiring my pictures, but I know my heart can rest knowing He is doing the inner work in me that counts and I'd be beautiful to Him even if I were bald! That is truly humbling. My vanity doesn't stand a chance!
So are there inner towers in your heart with pieces of you hiding out there? Can you hear the invitation of the Prince today? The invitation is ringing from deep inside where the Spirit dwells. “Come out of the tower. Come live your life as a dangerous beauty with Me!”
Go on, I dare ya to jump!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Love, Right and Wrong
As I am reading again through the new testament, it is more striking than ever how love is always stressed over right or wrong. Right and wrong is important but stays in the realm of behavior. Right and wrong actions can be done without real love and relationship. Love, on the other hand, goes beyond behavior to relationship. It is what drives us to choose right because we care and desire relationship. Love is what gives life to obedience and sacrifice which would both be dead without love. When you love someone, isn't it more natural to do what is right for them? When you feel loved and seen and valued by someone, don't you long to be with them and treat them well?
I have tended to separate love and justice. Sometimes they don't seem compatible. I have struggled as a parent with righting wrongs and the need to fix behavior, teach self control and require obedience because those things can sometimes seem at odds with grace and love. I often hear other Christians make a distinction. Should I offer love and grace or justice and truth? The assumption is that love and grace negate justice and truth. I think this is false. Love and grace motivate justice and truth and go deeper underneath them to change the heart. Love and grace motivate and change us. So what should be stressed and nurtured and focussed on? What comes first, love or justice? As a parent, when I am careful to spend time with my kids, see them, listen to them, make an effort to see what is going on in their heart beneath the behavior, point out the good and value and nurture their God given passions and gifts (which may be very different than mine) and communicate the love of the Father to them, they tend to want to obey more. When I say "yes" as much as possible and give as much freedom to them as is appropriate, they tend to trust and come back to me for guidance. Isn't it true with us as well? In my experience as a parent, love comes first. This is what I aslo see in the Scriptures and it is more and more how I am experiencing the Father.
So did Jesus act in obedience and submit to sacrifice primarily to right wrongs, or out of passionate love and desire for relationship? What Father do you worship; one more concerned with making wrong right or One who knows and loves His children well and is longing to gather them into His arms and see them glow in His presence deeply trusting His love for them? What difference does that make for you in how you live and relate to the Father, each other and yourself?
I have tended to separate love and justice. Sometimes they don't seem compatible. I have struggled as a parent with righting wrongs and the need to fix behavior, teach self control and require obedience because those things can sometimes seem at odds with grace and love. I often hear other Christians make a distinction. Should I offer love and grace or justice and truth? The assumption is that love and grace negate justice and truth. I think this is false. Love and grace motivate justice and truth and go deeper underneath them to change the heart. Love and grace motivate and change us. So what should be stressed and nurtured and focussed on? What comes first, love or justice? As a parent, when I am careful to spend time with my kids, see them, listen to them, make an effort to see what is going on in their heart beneath the behavior, point out the good and value and nurture their God given passions and gifts (which may be very different than mine) and communicate the love of the Father to them, they tend to want to obey more. When I say "yes" as much as possible and give as much freedom to them as is appropriate, they tend to trust and come back to me for guidance. Isn't it true with us as well? In my experience as a parent, love comes first. This is what I aslo see in the Scriptures and it is more and more how I am experiencing the Father.
So did Jesus act in obedience and submit to sacrifice primarily to right wrongs, or out of passionate love and desire for relationship? What Father do you worship; one more concerned with making wrong right or One who knows and loves His children well and is longing to gather them into His arms and see them glow in His presence deeply trusting His love for them? What difference does that make for you in how you live and relate to the Father, each other and yourself?
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
On Being Human
"A spiritual person tries less to be godly than to be deeply human."
~ Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr.
I stole this quote from a friend's status on facebook and reposted it. Another friend of mine asked for my commentary on it which made me reflect a bit more deeply. So without reading the original context of this quote, this is what I heard in it. :)
As Christians it seems that the word “human” has a negative connotation. When we talk about our humanity it is often linked with our weakness. “Oh well, I'm only human!” But what does being human really mean? Could being "deeply human" mean living in the fullness of who God has created us to be? Indeed, God created us to be human from the beginning.
I went through a devotional book this last advent season called “God With Us”. It focuses on the incarnation in ways I had never considered. One thought that was most striking to me was that Jesus did not primarily stoop down into our humanness to bring the holiness of heaven down to us, but to raise our humanness back up to the heavenly where it was created to be. He came to restore dignity and holiness to our humanity! Jesus never cast off the human flesh, but brought it with Him back into heaven. He, as we speak, is still human! And we, in our very human flesh, are also raised with Him and seated with Him in the heavenlies, united with Him in humanness. We are his Body. And though these mortal bodies that carry our humanity are wasting away and will die, they will be fully restored to match the body Jesus now resides in. He did not detest the flesh, but sought to restore it and return it to the dignity it had from the beginning. He brought back the dignity of all that it is to be human, so that we can live more fully into our humanity. He lived, worked, played and loved as a fully free human engaging all of this human life loved by the Father; and He invites us to do the same.
The truth is, we cannot bear the image of God and therefore “be godly” apart from being human. To ere is to be human, yes, but it is also human to learn from our errors and grow. To have compassion, to live and work together in community is to be human. The desire to create and recreate, to enjoy beauty and celebrate is to be human. To come together, to reach out, to adventure, explore, discover, listen, heal; human! To be alive and engage the Trinity in relationship in a way angels envy; this is what it is to be human. This is what it is to reflect and relate to the Creator.
In this way, to live deeply into our redeemed humanness is to be truly godly.
~ Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr.
I stole this quote from a friend's status on facebook and reposted it. Another friend of mine asked for my commentary on it which made me reflect a bit more deeply. So without reading the original context of this quote, this is what I heard in it. :)
As Christians it seems that the word “human” has a negative connotation. When we talk about our humanity it is often linked with our weakness. “Oh well, I'm only human!” But what does being human really mean? Could being "deeply human" mean living in the fullness of who God has created us to be? Indeed, God created us to be human from the beginning.
I went through a devotional book this last advent season called “God With Us”. It focuses on the incarnation in ways I had never considered. One thought that was most striking to me was that Jesus did not primarily stoop down into our humanness to bring the holiness of heaven down to us, but to raise our humanness back up to the heavenly where it was created to be. He came to restore dignity and holiness to our humanity! Jesus never cast off the human flesh, but brought it with Him back into heaven. He, as we speak, is still human! And we, in our very human flesh, are also raised with Him and seated with Him in the heavenlies, united with Him in humanness. We are his Body. And though these mortal bodies that carry our humanity are wasting away and will die, they will be fully restored to match the body Jesus now resides in. He did not detest the flesh, but sought to restore it and return it to the dignity it had from the beginning. He brought back the dignity of all that it is to be human, so that we can live more fully into our humanity. He lived, worked, played and loved as a fully free human engaging all of this human life loved by the Father; and He invites us to do the same.
The truth is, we cannot bear the image of God and therefore “be godly” apart from being human. To ere is to be human, yes, but it is also human to learn from our errors and grow. To have compassion, to live and work together in community is to be human. The desire to create and recreate, to enjoy beauty and celebrate is to be human. To come together, to reach out, to adventure, explore, discover, listen, heal; human! To be alive and engage the Trinity in relationship in a way angels envy; this is what it is to be human. This is what it is to reflect and relate to the Creator.
In this way, to live deeply into our redeemed humanness is to be truly godly.
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