VBCC - "Being Yourself"

Romans 12:3-6a "Thus, in virtue of the favor given to me, I warn each of you not to think more highly of himself than he ought. Let him estimate himself soberly, in keeping with the faith that God has apportioned him. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and not all the members have the same function, so too we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. We have gifts that differ according to the favor bestowed on each of us.Ó

Being who you are - sounds simple. But first, we must discover who that is. In Romans we're told, basically, to be who we have been made to be as opposed to someone else. Don't think too highly of yourself - and implied there is also "don't think too lowly of yourself." If you've been made to do this, do it, if that, do that. True humility is not talking about yourself like a worm in the dirt - it's as the scripture says - "sober estimation" - real, honest estimation of yourself.

The trouble is that much of who we may happen to be at any given point in our lives could be illusion - not who we were created to be by God. In order to find who we really are - who we're really supposed to be, we must look not only in ourselves but in God - our true identity is found only in Him.

Here are some great quotes from Thomas Merton's book "New Seeds in Contemplation" about identity:

"A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying Him..." "The more a tree is like itself, the more it is like Him. If it tried to be like something else which it was never intended to be, it would be less like God and therefore if would give Him less glory." "No two created beings are exactly alike. And their individuality is no imperfection." "...each particular being, in its individuality, its concrete nature and entity, with all its own characteristics and its private qualities and its own inviolable identity, gives glory to God be being precisely what He wants it to be here and now, in the circumstances ordained for it by His Love and His infinite Art." "Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny."

1 Peter 4:10-11 "As generous distributors of God's manifold grace, put your gifts at the service of one another, each in the measure he has received. The one who speaks is to deliver God's message. The one who serves is to do it with the strength provided by God. Thus, in all of you God is to be glorified through Jesus Christ: to him be glory and dominion throughout the ages. Amen."

Part two - after we go about, or should I say, AS we go about figuring out who we are in God, what and who we are created to be, we are then able to put ourselves at the disposal of others - we are able to use the gifts we have been given, in the strength of God, to build other people up. In doing this we are loving as God loves - giving ourselves. This is giving him glory as the scripture says - just like Merton was talking about. Be the "tree" you were meant to be - in doing this you allow God's life in you to come out and effect the world around you - that's glory - manifested presence.

So, its a progressive thing. First we find our true identity in God, with God, then we do with it what was meant to be done with it - love people - serve others with ourselves - no accident to the order of Romans 12 - first the sober estimation, then the talk of being gifted in different ways and using those gifts. We are, as Peter says, distributors of God's grace.

Of course, as we talked about last time in our Conversion discussion, this is a process. It doesn't happen instantaneously - the more we become our true selves, the more we manifest the nature of God. Let's all continue to walk in the process, cooperating with God in "finding ourselves" so we can truly "be ourselves."