“Just” be yourself…
Apr 24th, 2010 by ljkim
People say “just be yourself” as though it were easy to do. It’s not easy being authentic, it’s easier to fit into a marketer’s stereotype of you. Or dress up as something you’re not, because you just really wanted to be that way… Or sometimes people mistake what ”just being yourself” means, and equate it with permission to be rude or not care what other people think; but how you deal with other people’s thoughts is part of who you really are too…
Maybe the reason why it’s so hard to be yourself is because it takes work to get to the truth. Ernest Hemingway said that he would write all day long, cross out or erase most of it, and try to find two or three true words. You might not really want (and you’re not cut out for) that career in marketing, or you might not be cut out for business at all, but you *think* you do. You got it in your head that THIS is who you should be. I’ve known pastors who were not really cut out for that kind of ministry, but they learned somewhere that THAT is what people who love Jesus should do, and they like being the ones in charge…when perhaps they were more cut out for teaching or business (I’ve known both).
Pardon me for getting a bit preachy, but I think a lot of this pretending we do is really motivated out of fear… Hemingway thought that it was easy to want to sound smart or sound deep, instead of just saying what’s true in his writing. In the same way we conform to certain standards or want to project a certain image out of fear of “what people will think of us.” God says “don’t be afraid” and “stop pretending.” Instead, start loving. Care deeply about other people’s well being, but don’t be afraid of what they might think of you… Truth is they’ll dislike you sometimes, like you at others, that’s pretty much out of your control… But if you operate on love rather than fear, you can stop pretending and see things a little more the way God sees them.
Anyway, in our family…Cityfellowship…I pray you can just be yourself. With nothing to prove (because the greatest thing you’ve done is something Jesus has done for you), and nothing to fear. The good news is that God loves you as you are, and not the image you want to project. And He’s in the business of perfecting the real you, and exalting it. You are made the way you are for a reason in such a way that all your idiosyncrasies will make perfect sense one day.
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