Embrace Yourself

I love cookies. Chocolate chip cookies are my favorite. I even like chocolate chip cookies a certain way: undercooked, gooey, and lots of chocolate chips. I like them best when they just melt in your mouth. No chewing is necessary. The Norwegian kringle is another of my favorites. If you know what these are then no explanation is necessary; if you don’t know what one is then no explanation is possible. I grew up eating kringler (the plural of kringle) thinking that everybody ate these. I suffered withdrawals my freshman year of college when no good kringle could be found in the city of Des Moines. I just recently purchased a number of boxes of Girl Scout cookies. I like them too. It turns out that our boys like Girl Scout cookies more than I do (or at least they were around the house more and had more access to them) and the boxes and boxes of cookies somehow disappeared.

So here is a question: Wouldn’t it be pretty boring if all cookies were the same? Variety is a good thing.

And so it is with people. When God created me, He made me unique. I have particular gifts and abilities. I am wired differently than others. I look dissimilarly than others. This is who I am. It is my true self. Only as I become who God intends for me to become will I experience contentment and freedom. It is at this point of authenticity and realness when I am one with God, myself, and others. And so it is with you.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
-Psalm 139:14

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
–Ephesians 2:10

Think about that. Not only are you wonderfully complex. You are God’s masterpiece. You are living a once-to-be-lived and never-to-be-repeated life. God created you because the party wouldn’t be complete without you. God doesn’t want you to become like somebody else. Here are the lyrics to the song Persona:

Every morning I put it on. I walk outside and I am gone. And I don't seem to mind anymore. I can't think what it was like before. I wore it all the time.

In the evening I take it off, but there's another one underneath. And I can't seem to find the bottom of the stack I just might lose my mind and never get it back, but at least I'll get inside.

Some of us struggle with trying to meet the expectations of others and of culture, and we are losing our true self that God has created us to be. So today do God, others, and yourself a favor: embrace and be yourself.

Training Update

No running. No time.