Be Yourself – We Are Who We Are
Intent of this Running Thought:
My desire is for you and I to stop pretending and/or to stop living life mindlessly.
Who Are You? Who am I?
We are not self-made, we are created.
We don’t exist by chance, we are designed.
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Psalms 139:13-14
We are known to God, we are not a mystery
“Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…” Jeremiah 1:4-5
“But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.”
Matthew 10:30
I cannot hide from God
“O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me…” Psalms 139:1-10
I used to read these verses and be bothered and frustrated that I had no place to hide. No place to take a vacation from the tedious work of living. Everywhere I went He was there. Everything I did, He was aware. Everything I thought, He knew. And everything I was going to say, He knew it beforehand! I had no escape; nowhere to run to.
But as I matured and understood God’s love for me, couched in perfect grace and His constant awareness of all I was doing, thinking and saying it became comforting. My Father knows me, loves me, and is with me…a perfect refuge.
This Frees Me to be Me
As we go through life trying to look or sound a certain way in order to be satisfied personally or to meet the expectations of those around us, this becomes a life of pretence and a very heavy burden for us to carry. For a chameleon this is natural. For us, not so much.
It is very freeing to be known just as we are, and still be perfectly loved.
Corporate life
I worked many years with my best friend who was—and therefore did not need to pretend to be—a gifted leader of people. One of his working principles was to “work with what’s real”. Sounds trite, but there’s so much wisdom in it. When we do not deal with what is really going on and attempt to avoid dealing with harsh or challenging realities, we unknowingly invest our time and energies into a fairyland of sorts. Applying spin or cosmetics to cover over imperfections is exhausting and unproductive.
This working with what is real included himself. He was just always him—yes imperfect—but never one to put on an act. He found it incredibly liberating to avoid personality politics, and it also allowed and encouraged others to just be themselves. This approach saves many hours, days, and years of figuring people out. People knew what they could expect from one another, which promoted predictable teamwork and collaboration.
Christian Community Living
I remember growing up and my mom’s mom, Nana, would stay with us. I vividly remember several of her sayings like “giddy up Napolean, it looks like rain” or “malarkey dust!”. Whatever she meant, they made us smile and still do. Another saying she often repeated when we were not behaving or acting as we should was “Be yourself”. This saying has stayed with me as a wise reminder to be real; to be who I actually am.
I stopped pretending a long time ago. I remember sitting with my small group at home. I
asked them if they wanted to see someone who was sincere, determined and consistent in their pursuit of God and who desired to be like Him. They said “yeah, that would be great”. I then told them that I was that person and this week included me being anxious, depressed, slipping in and out of sin, exhausted…and just being me, for Him.
We all are God’s work in progress. (Phil 1:6). We need not show off our imperfections, but we do anyway. We don’t need to pretend His work is completed, we simply need to Be Ourselves, because that is who we are.
God is Always, Perfectly Himself. He IS who He IS….
Be Yourself. The world needs realness, empathy, companionship and example to grow.
Simply 2 words that mean so much!
And being yourself is much easier and rewarding as you get older.
When you are young, there is peer pressure and social trends that may force you into trying to be something that you are not.
But as you mature, you get a better idea of who you are inside, and it becomes easier to show it on the outside as well.
So if you are young, work at it, and your true self will shine.
And if you are older, revel in the fact that you can be yourself, with you, and HIM.
And Tommy…thank you for the Nana shout out…she was indeed a special person, full of faith and genuine to a fault.
SHE WAS ALWAYS HERSELF !
Has always been a huge focus of mine over the years to be genuine, simply because it also lines up with treating others in the way you want to be treated yourself. People thirst for realness in a world full of impostor syndrome.