From the Pastor… Be Yourself?
There are so many different walks of life, so many different personalities in the world. And no longer do you have to be a chameleon and try and adapt to that environment – you can truly be yourself. — Hope Solo
Have you ever wanted to be someone else? Why? Would one’s life be better by assuming another’s role or identity? You would gain his/her miseries and disappointments along with that person’s accomplishments. And why envy another person anyway? The 10th commandments warns us not to do that. It’s a dead-end exercise.
In the last chapter of John’s gospel is an interesting conversation the resurrected Jesus had with Peter. When the Lord commented on Peter’s future, Peter looked back to another follower of Jesus and basically asked, “And what about that guy?” Jesus brushed aside his question as irrelevant and urged Peter to follow his own path of discipleship and not someone else’s (John 21:18-22).
Jesus lets us be our own person. His will for our lives is not cookie-cutter or one-size-fits-all. To those with many talents, He expects more. To those of lesser abilities, less. God is really good at dealing with us as individuals. – Yes, individualism is very American and can be carried too far. But the Lord calls us to live our own lives… for Him.
To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man. – William Shakespeare
There are many other quotes about being yourself, but the best green light we have on that advice comes from Jesus.
God’s best to you today,
Lee