Goodness

 May 4, 2020

Goodness

“You are not what others think you are. You are what God knows you are.”
― Shannon Alder

 

 

How many times have I found myself depressed or weary because of someone else’s words for me? The desire to be liked or loved, to be affirmed and accepted is so very great in the human heart.

 

But then, there’s the rest of humanity- all 7, 440,000,000 of them. If a mere fraction of them, a fraction that is infinitesimal finds my likeness or my words, my being or my presence to be unworthy of their approval- I’m decimated.

 

What about the other 7, 439,999,900? I probably never took the time to ask them. And so, the nature of my worldview and the extent to the effort I am used to putting into making friends in my life is exposed. We are creatures of habit and convenience- even in our happiness.

 

So let’s look at how God looks at each of us. God has gone out of God’s way to imbue each of us with a collection of gifts and desires that makes each of us as unique as the individual snowflake. You’ve heard that- “no 2 snowflakes look alike”? It’s the same for us as the beauty of an individual snowflake, beauty and creativity is what makes up each of us.

 

But it’s hard. Our lives are set in the place they are and for many picking up and moving on is beyond a possibility. And so, we have to make due with the people around us, and the ways in which they decide to react to us. God though gives us a tool to adapt. God’s self.

 

Turn toward God. God has the time. God has the attraction toward you. God has the desire to walk with us, talk with us, and to offer to us the affirmation all of us need to overcome other person’s opinions of us. God also has the ability to relive of us of the amount of concern we place in how others think of us.  

 

Can and do you do good in the world? This is the place in which God and each of us meet- goodness. This goodness then can help us overcome the cyclic worry we have of other persons’ opinions of us. Concentrating once again on goodness and our place in its spreading can and will change the ways others see us. I promise. As long as we focus and maintain our focus on God and on goodness lived in our lives, we’ll begin to shed the effects of our worry.

 

God and goodness.

 

Rev. Ken