Friday, April 5, 2013

Worth


Over the past few days, God has been pushing this idea of a human being's worth into my heart deeply. I've always known that human life is precious, worth fighting for, and a gift. But I confess that I don't know if I truly connected that to my own life and more specifically, to my own actions.

This idea was impressed in me even further when I read Carolyn Custis James' Half the Church. She discusses the root meaning of the word "woman", which in Hebrew is translated as a military term, ezer. So, God created women to be soldiers. Soldiers, warriors! To be armed with a weighty sword, with a purpose. God created us to be strong, to fight.

So often, however, I don't act this way. I resort to gossip, to piddling in my own puddle of mud, complaining that my sword isn't as big or sharp or shiny as the next woman's.

What a tragedy! Armed with the very living God inside of me, I could join the rest of the women and the human race, to take this world by storm. I am a child of the same God who creates earthquakes, builds and tears down nations, who uses the whole earth as his footstool. We are all vessels of His glory. How can we not shine or create or love fully if we have this God dwelling inside of us? We are human beings; we are women, masterpieces of His hands. This isn't simply a feel-good message. This is a life-altering call to radically move.

I ran across this quote from Marianne Williamson the other day that only reinforced the principle.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” - Marianne Williamson

We are children of God. So let's go change the world.

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