Just Be 30-Day Challenge

Just BE Me – Day 30

Webster says ‘Me’ means the informal use of I; of or involving an obsessive interest in one’s own satisfaction

Synonyms: personally, me personally, myself, the author, yours truly

GOD says in Genesis 16:13, ‘She answered God by name, praying to the God who spoke to her, “You are the God who sees me! Yes, He saw me; and then I saw Him!” (MSG).’ And in Psalm 139:23-24, ‘Search me, o God; know my heart. Test me; know my anxious thoughts. See if there be any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting (NIV).’
This is known as the ‘Me’ generation. ‘Me! Me! Me!’ But it doesn’t seem like we are able to have a very healthy view of who that means, who I am. And perhaps even more importantly, why me?

There is an unspoken but understood ‘I’ etiquette. It is a conduct that has been established and passed down from generation to generation. Have you ever noticed how little boys motor their mouths, making little ‘vroom vroom’ noises that sound identical to cars starting and trucks revving? Likewise, little girls, from the moment they can teeter on high heels, dress up in mommy’s dresses, with beads bigger than they are wrapped around their necks and a purse slung over a shoulder. Guys lift weights to bulk themselves and girls starve themselves to un-bulk. It takes me longer to ‘get ready’ to ‘do the day’ even when I am working from home, unseen by anyone, than I spend getting into Jesus so we can do the day together.

I paused to consider this though. There isn’t anything wrong with makeup and pretty clothes and certainly not in taking good care of myself. In fact, we are to take care of our bodies because it is a temple where Jesus chooses to dwell, where He took up residency to be close to me when I invited Him inside. But I realized I needed to consider my motive and if I was preparing myself for the appraisal of people. I also realized that the more I decorated myself, the more hidden my inner self, the real me, the me I don’t want anyone else to see, could be. I deflected. I hid myself in foreign feelings so I could be unknown and undiscoverable and unavailable.

You know what? Maybe no one else could see the depth of my pain. Perhaps I couldn’t even see the depth of my despair because I had immersed it in a bottle and tranquilized it with a dose of this or that. But God knew. No matter how far we run, how much we mask, how buried we hide, there is a God who sees you because He loves you. He is the God who sees me, and His loving gaze searches the intimate details disguised in my heart that I hide from everyone else, but I am unable to hide from Him. He is anxious to know you, beautiful daughter; He is anxious to know me. So plant the garden of your heart; water it well, and when everything you nurtured bursts forth in blooms of beauty and color, lift your face to the Son; know He loves you and He chooses you and He sees you, just the beautiful person He made you to be.

Day 30 Challenge: Every person created by God (which is every person) was endowed with gifts and talents. What are yours? Write them down. That’s how intently your Father knows you.