Contentment

I started blogging as a way for my family and friends that don't have facebook to be "in the know" with mostly everything that's going on in my life.  I didn't start blogging to write an advice column or to preach, but today, I'm feeling the need to share what God has slapped me in the face with this morning!  

 Every Wednesday night, I gather with a bunch of teenagers for worship.  We may sing praise songs, we  open God's word, we may be out in the community using the hands that God has given us to serve, or we may just have ourselves a little ice cream sundae party and fellowship.  Regardless, we're together and we like it that way!  Where I once was absolutely terrifed to stand in front of a group of people and pray, I find myself looking forward to my favorite day of the week because I get to spend it with some of my very favorite people on Earth, drawing close to God.  

I've been teaching a series called "Reflection."  Most of us want to be real.  Most of us want to find a place where someone loves us for who we really are, and not for who we pretend to be.  But we're just not sure where that place is.  And even if we know that place is with God, that He sees us and loves us for who we are, we have a hard time believing it.  We're reluctant to live that uncovered, that exposed.  But from the beginning, God made humanity with an intentionality to create something beautiful.  What He sees in our reflection is much different than what we see.  

Tonight, we're looking at the story of Creation and how we are made in God's image.  What an extraordinary gift that is in itself!  God gave man the unique ability to represent God.  No other creature was given that ability- not the fish, not the birds, only MAN.  We have value not because of our body, or hair or what others say about us.  But we have value beacuse we were created by God in His image.  God didn't just make us in His image.  In Ephesians, it says, "For we are God's workmanship..."  That means that we are His masterpiece.  A new creation.  We are the artwork of God, and that is why we have such a high value.  

Here's where the road gets tough.  Our problem is that we look to others around us to give us value.  We feel like a loser when something doesn't happen and we think that it should.  Sometimes we become so overly critcial of ourselves when we don't live up to the ridiculous standards of the world.  We want people to value us because of what we look like or what we can do- when in reality, God's already approved.  God sees our value and loves us no matter what.  

Now this is what God has spoken so very clearly to me this morning- We know that we have value.  We know that God has a plan for our lives.  We know that there is nothing we can do to make him love us any more and nothing we can do to make him love us any less.  So why do we constantly try to put on a mask and be fake?!  It's time to lose the mask.  Time to quit being fake.  It won't be easy because our world thrives on fakeness, but God promises that it will be so freeing if we can just let all of that go.  

Philippians 4:11 says, "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." 

Content in all circumstances.  Can you imagine what that feels like?  That means no matter what God gives you- every dissapointment, every joyous occasion- that we're called to be content.  For my youth, it's when they find out that their weekly boyfriend/girlfriend has broken up with them or when they failed their Chemistry exam.  But for adults, it's when we've lost a job.  It's when a marriage hasn't worked out.  It's when we don't have enough money to make ends meet.  It's when your child is sick and there is no answer.  

Look at that scripture again.  Notice the word, "learned."  Paul wasn't bragging that he was just a super-good person who could be satisfied with just anything.  He said he learned to be content.  When I think about learning something, it generally means that I didn't already know it.  Think about it.  Maybe it's learning to play an instrument, or a new way of doing things at work, but it takes practice to get it right.  Learning takes practice.  And the same is true when it comes to being content with the person behind the mask, with the person God sees.  You have to learn to be content with the real you.  

It's hard to be content.  I'll be the first to say it. If I don't get my way about something, I pout.  I feel like the world is over.  There have been struggles in my life that have been handed to me that I don't think I deserved and great opportunities and things that have been afforded to me that I was definitely undeserving of.  There are things in my life right now that I'm unhappy with and things that I couldn't be happier about.  But taking that unhappiness and learning to be content with it is something that challenges us all.  Whatever your struggling with, I pray that you will learn to be real.  That you will learn how to understand your value because you are created in His image.  That you will learn how to become content and know that God has placed you where He has you and that He will reveal His plans for you in His time.  

         That could preach right there, ya'll!