What defines us?

This week a friend of mine gave me and a bunch of other Young Life staff a tutorial on Facebook. Facebook is like an internet friend linking website. Its a place where you log in and find all the people you haven’t seen in a while and maintain relationships with each other. So I’m told. I know it may be used for other purposes but relationships are my purpose. So I created a layout for my profile and began to look for all my friends and folks I knew on the amazing World Wide Web. It was pretty cool. I enjoyed seeing pictures of folks I haven’t seen in a long while. If you have a facebook profile there is a spot for your picture so people know who you are. So I found long lost friends, old YL kids, and many other folks as I searched. But during this process it came to me. Everyone’s picture represented him or her in a different way. Some people were wearing their A&M gear. Others were in their baseball uniforms; some were with a lot of friends. Heck if you even look at my profile you’ll see a picture of me trying to be funny. It came to me. Everyone wants to be known for something.

We all want to be someone, don’t we? There is no one in this world that wants to live a life not being known for something. So we venture out and we try to find ourselves. Maybe its through academics, or clubs, or sports where we think we are defined. If you excel in these worlds you are known for something. You are somebody. Remember no one wants to be a nobody. So we become good at those things we love in hopes that someone might see us. In hopes that we might be known. So material things and what we do begin to define who we are. Even what we drive, the clothes we wear, books we read, places we go, and people we hang out with define who we are. Sometimes that leaves me questioning “are we all on the right path or have we just chosen an avenue where we are somebody? Have we chosen a place that works for us.”

Don’t get me wrong; I enjoyed seeing what everyone is doing on Facebook. But do you ever think that we could just be ok with our own mug shot? Just a picture of us. Do you think there is enough glory in that? I believe Christ does. I believe Christ marvels at our pure unadulterated, undefined, unaccepted, state and says, “it is very good.” This is what Christ says to Adam in the garden as He looks at man for the first time, naked and all, and says, “It is very good.” There was nothing in the previous 5 days that God created that was more glorious, more amazing, than Adam. Of course then came Eve and it just got better, but you know what I mean. God just took Adam and refined him.

Do you hope that you could just see your naked self for all that you are and long to know you are accepted and known? Wow! I do. I do want to be known. I want to be known and not have to work for it though. You know what? I believe that’s what God offers us. We don’t have to work to be known. He knows us.

I hope today that you would find that it is not the things you do, achievements you accomplish, the amount of people who like you, the plaques on your wall, money you make, places you shop, clothes you wear, neighborhood you live in, sq. feet of your house, car you drive, or job you have that defines you. I hope you know that Christ looks at you in your pure amazing state of being a man or women and says, “you are very good. I delight in you.” Read those words again.