The Holiness of Being You
“I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful; I know that full well.” Psalm 139:14
We all deal with the nasty comparison bug. Some days, even a few minutes spent browsing Instagram sends me into a downward spiral. The life of “You are not enough” can creep in like poison in my heart, and I’m willing to bet it happens to you too. Because the grass always seems much greener on the other side of the screen, right?
It is so easy to get sucked into the cycle of comparison. How much of our lives are we spending with hearts aching to be like somebody else, or even a better version of who we are now? How much time do we spend dreaming up our ideal lives, or promising ourselves that tomorrow will be the day we change, or setting excessive goals for sometime in the near future and being crushed when we realize we aren’t even close to the person we dreamed of being?
Here’s what hit me this morning as I made my cup of coffee: trying to be like everybody else is a disservice to the Living God who fearfully and wonderfully made me. There’s a holiness that arises when I am most authentically me. There’s a holiness in being you.
Pretty strong revelation as I wait on my Keurig, right? Okay, God. I hear you loud and clear.
During the summer I spent as a counselor at Greystone, I couldn’t get Psalm 139:14 out of my head. For some reason, this verse stuck out to me, even though I’d heard it so many times before. So I wrote it everywhere. I placed a sign over the mirror, wrote it out for each of my girls; I seriously put it everywhere I could. Because it mattered. I wanted my girls to walk away after the few weeks they were in my care knowing that they were beautifully, fearfully, and wonderfully made.
And somewhere in the process of trying to sink that passage into their hearts and their heads, I started to believe it about myself, too.
It’s my prayer today that it would start to sink in for your too. I’m learning that it’s a daily choice to actually be who God created us to be. It takes a lot of guts and will probably be uncomfortable, but Jesus said in John 10:10 that “the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” That is what we exchange when we let go of comparison and choose to settle into our own skin; real life, full life, JOY happens! Joy and life in exchange for being myself? If that doesn’t make you excited I don’t know what will!
There is a holiness in being who God made you to be. You are beautiful and wonderful and exactly right, just as you are. Let that truth fill your heart with joy today, and go out into the world celebrating who you are in Christ!