As the wise words from folk song artist Jake Bugg once sang,
"Girl, you've been forgetting/
Just how special you really are/
And I try to remind you/
Sometimes I can't find you/
But the truth is in your heart/
So write a note to yourself..."
Here is a note I wrote to myself when I was having anxiety over a situation a couple weeks ago.
Add your name in the spaces provided. Print, laminate, and read as needed. Or better yet, make your own. Write that which is most difficult for you to believe in a time of need. Note what scripture affirms to be true about you. For this is your self-care, Church, let this Love speak over you. As God speaks to you, repeat it back to yourself over and over and over again. Family of God, recognize when the enemy is trying to pull you down. Reclaim the Truth back into your heart. Let it reside there and give you peace today.
"Dear ( ),
I know you are freaking out right now, but everything is going to be okay.
Never forsake being you! And guess what? Who you are is ALREADY beautiful, ALREADY lovely, ALREADY precious, ALREADY loved, ALREADY adored, ALREADY held, ALREADY fulfilled, ALREADY satisfied, and ALREADY where you need to be.
Trust, my dear ( ), that your Heavenly Father has everything in control. Believe, my dear ( ), that your Father knows what you need before you even ask for it!
You don't enter this fight alone; you don't enter even one second alone! ( ), you are brave.
The world will tell you many things about your heart, your face, and your body, but don't fret my darling ( ). You were made with such care; you are made with such great delight.
Your heart comes alive in Christ. Your face reveals His glory. Your body is a temple for the powerful Holy Spirit. Greater is God in you than the one who is in the world.
You go,( ), and be strong. You go, my friend, and live life to its fullest! Today is the day the Lord has made; rejoice ( ) and be glad in it!
"So then remember at one time you were called "the uncircumcised" by those called "the circumcised," done by hand in the flesh. At that time you were without the Messiah, excluded from the chosen of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, with no hope and without God in the world...." -Ephesians 2:11-12
This chapter has become just as imprinted upon me as 2 Cor. 5:17 (what I claim as my 'life verse' alongside many who now are "made new in Christ.") Ephesians 2 has become something I can so deeply resonate with. It is something the Spirit has opened my eyes to over and over and over again.
The other day I was sitting down with my roommate and showing her one of my many scrapbooks. Full of oddly cut pictures glued to the cardboard from cereal boxes, covered with inside jokes, song lyrics, sermons notes, and random memorabilia. She marveled at the collection and made the most profound statement. She said, "No one who knows you could ever make something like this. This is so special, so you. It shows everything that was going on around you, everything from your point of view... "
'Everything going on around me' struck a chord. I was left pondering that; how profound that seemed. It wasn't necessarily showing who I was, but what I was about-from school, to family, from youth group, to numerous youth group trips. It showed smiles, laughs, trips, and camps. It showed pictures of me, but that picture is only complete if you know me now and how those images shaped me. Those photos didn't show you what was going on in the inside. It only showed part of the story. A glimpse of a person never brings justice.
I've been learning in my Spiritual Formation Class at Talbot Seminary taught this semester by Kyle Strobel that "we are always mirroring something/someone. That it's impossible to self-define because we can only know our true selves in Christ since that is where we are hidden. The 'observed I' or who I think I am, is really only ever the 'observing I.' This meaning ,what others are observing, I let define me and have been doing so since birth. We do this naturally and unknowingly. We were in a way made purposely with this mirroring dynamic since we were made to reflect only ever Christ in me. To really know me, I must know Him; to really know Him, I must know the I."
(You can message me if you want more explanation.)
Thus, the question returns to who was I and who am I?
This is why I love Ephesians 2. This is where or answers lay.
We can put the verse into a paraphrase as such:
"Christian-don't forget where you come from or from where you began. How before you were once called 'unholy and outsiders' by those who are holy and on the inside. You were without the Chosen One (Jesus), you were not part of the family, the eternal bond of their company and God's. You once had no hope, you felt alone because you hadn't known or acknowledged your Maker..."
Being born into this world I reflected this world. Broken and lost. I once was unholy, excluded, and without hope. What I mirrored I also became.
Like a photo revealing the years, there can come a change-
"But now in Christ Jesus, you were far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. For He is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down there dividing wall of hostility."-Ephesians 2:13-14
There were and are many things that could be my mirror, but only one will show the depths of who I am truly. That mirror comes through scripture and that face is Jesus.
An old pastor of mine once claimed "There's no greater conjunction in the Bible than the word "but.""-Mark Luepke. "But now in Jesus you are now all one. By what He has done for you-by His sacrifice of Himself, He has united you. He is your comfort, our hope, our future, our love, our portion; there's no more division between His people & you. There is only 'we' now." (my paraphrase)
To all believers of Christ Jesus there is only we now.
As the previous verses of Ephesians points out, this was none of our doing. If we were left on our own we would be continuing to reflect only what was going on around us. BUT now with Christ's Spirit inside us we can reflect Truth. Truth was we were sinners deserving of God's wrath (2:3). But Truth now is God's kindness didn't give us what we deserved, instead His gift of grace has made us masterpieces! (2:4-10).
How beautiful!
Can you imagine if God designed a scrapbook of your life? How would it reveal the "observed I /the real you"?
I think the scrapbook of my soul would have this song's lyrics written over it's cover. What about your's?
"Father God,
I thank you for who you are!
You are rich in kindness,
in goodness,
and in grace!
There is no one like you
and without you I am nothing.
Forgive me Lord
for the times I have let other things
define me,
when I have let others take your place in my heart.
Thank you for you son Jesus who did what I could not
