wow two posts in one day.....crazy.


Anyway, I've delayed writing about this for a while but it came up again and I discussed it with some people and so I'm writing about it. (Catches breath).

I recently picked up my copy of Searching for God knows What by Don Miller and I read through the chapter titled Adam, Eve and the Alien.In that chapter Don states from the alien's point of view that

they [Humans] are an entirely beautiful people with a terrible problem.

The problem that he is refering to is that we, human beings judge ourselves, compare ourselves, and try to derive our worth from unfulfilling places. In other words....not God. Spending time with his friend the space alien, Don watches basketball and the alien asks why we play. Don's simple response is to determine the better team and the alien doesn't understand why. Feeling a little put off by the alien, Don turns the channel and stops by the shows that are all competition or comparison. Survivor, The Bachelor, Fear Factor or any of the plethora of shows with similar content. The alien picking up on the fact that competition and comparison dominates our world says

you are obsessed. You have to wear a certain kind of clothes, drive a certain car, speak a certain way, live in a certain neighborhood, whatever, all of it so you can be higher on an invisible hierarchy. It's an obsession! You are trying to feel right by comparing yourself to others. It is ridiculous. Who told you there was anything wrong with you in the first place? Don't you know that a human is just a human.

We have missed something and we have missed something big. We have missed the fact that we are the Imago Dei, we are made in the image of God. Our self worth should come from God, period, end of story. But let one person tell you your ugly, or cut you down about something that you are good at and that goes quickly out the window. What happens when we base our self worth on our ablity to play a sport, what other people think of us, our looks, our intellence or any number of things that cause us to be noticed? What happens when you break your throwing arm or tear your ACL? What happens when you find out that someone is actually smarter than you? What happens when the places you run to for worth stop validating you? Your world slowly crumbles and your left wondering what just happened?

this breaks my heart because this is a disease that afflicts many people, it is killing them and they don't even know it. I know so many beautiful, amazing, intelligent, talented, and unique people. And yet so many miss it, sin has twisted this world and God's goodness and turned it back on his people as a weapon against them. In high school I tryed so hard to be perfect, to be the smartest guy in the class, to be different and you know what....I wasn't happy. It wasn't until I realized and accepted that God loves me and that I am amazing, beautiful and desired by him that I could recover from this un-fulfilling disease. It has taken me a long while to realize and address this issue with myself and I think I understand it. One last thing....

You know in the beginning God created everything and said it was good, you think about that....because that includes you and me.