Surfing with a Purpose

How many of us live ‘just out’ of touch with reality?

Really unaware of how we impact others, trying to cover our own pains and fear with activities and achievements?

I mean, let’s face it: we all want to be better. To have a better bank account, to look better, to play a sport or an instrument better, etc. In wanting this, I think we often present the side of us we feel will be well received. We hide the things we think might offend or might induce rejection.

We live for the sense of self-protection. We cling hopelessly to the things that bring us happiness and provide our shades of security. I think more often that we realise we perform habits or rituals that we have established to provide these. For instance, when I have a headache I know I need a diet coke and an advil. When I am stressed, nothing suits me more than a huge dance class or hitting the weights at the gym.

Perhaps more often than we realise, we do the things that we have designed to restore our feigned sense of well being.

When we refuse to allow the other sides of ourself project, we are like sun catchers glued to black paper. There is a sparkle, but it doesn’t radiate. We create a distance between ourselves and those we long to be close to that is discouraging.

We diminish our own quality of life. We are so consumed with the fears of rejection- the ideas that play on repeat in our heads, that we think only belong to us.

I hear the same phrase being echoed throughout. " I don't belong" "I am weird" "I am different" This breaks my heart!!

We are all different, we are all beautifully strange. That was the whole idea of God creating us individually, not in some mass cookie cutter mold. We were 'fearfully and wonderfully made' (pslm 139:14) Our differences, neurosis, quirks and quammers are to be embraced. Some might need smoothing out, but some might be better sharp.

This false concept of being ‘weird’ or having an ‘odd mind/thought’ or ‘not fitting in’ is counterfeit. It is a ploy of Satan, trying to prevent unity. There is force is numbers, and power in strength. The seed of a person who fights falls on everyone.

If we continue to live in the façade that, ‘all is well’ we keep ourselves from self examining. We are rearranging and shuffling rather than addressing and changing. In this, we never become the transformed person God wants us to be.

In wanting more, we become vulnerable to following anyone who holds out the promise of it. We should want more- more of Jesus, and be vulnerable only to Him.

We weren’t created to do things alone, we weren’t created to be islands. Instead of turning to the ritual we’ve created, we need to turn to each other. Form friendships that are built on a solid Godly foundation, Paul says in Romans (1:12) that 'you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.'

Love God. Love others. We can't honor these without internal change. Moral effect, alone, can never produce a geniune love. We can only love as much as we know that we are loved, and love ourselves. We can't be a pillar for someone else, if inside we are a heap of salt.

Be different. I want to be different- I want to a different kind of person, not someone whose behavior patterns or biblical knowledge is commendable; but different because my influence in life drives me to live by design in the higher place I am called to. Different because I am a reflection of God, not of the world.

Highlight your uniqueness. Embrace it. LOVE IT!! If for no other reason, love yourself because you are a prince or a princess of the Almighty King. Love you, for who you are, because you were created out of love.

We are diamonds in the rough. In order for us to sparkle and to shine, we need to get off the black cloth, and allow God to buffer and polish, and we need solid friends as the base on which we gleam. When we allow all sides of us to show, then and only then, can the Son shine through us, and we can illuminate a sparkle that will light up the dark, and capture the world.

After all, diamonds are priceless.

Be a diamond. Shine like the stars as you hold out the Word of God.