Tuesday, May 5, 2015

The fake self and the real self

I keep hearing this phrase "be your real self" and wonder what is my real self? Is it the person I want to be deep down inside with a welcoming demeanure and kindness in the eyes or is it the true person I am with flaws, mistakes, and hurts? Is the self that I claim is real just a facade to protect my true colors? 

Since I tend to take things so literally and to the point, I would interpret this phrase "be the real you" to mean the me that is raw and unadulterated. Yet there must be more than one layer of "the real you." There is the person that I show to strangers, the one that I show to acquaintances, and then those that I show to close friends and family. Some, or all of you, get glimpses of this person. But unless I know you well, you probably haven't seen all of me, or at least the part that makes me uniquely me. I think this is true about most of the world. As humans it is our nature to just share enough to interact and have friendships but rarely do we really dig deep to get to know someone. 

However, when I thought more about this phrase I wondered if in the effort to be our real selves we might actually create this ideal or desirous person that we say we're like. We try so hard to attain this ideal "real personhood" that we fail to actually be who we are, faults and all. In essence, we end up covering who we are with who we want to be and mask who we really are. 

So I guess my encouragement is to be who you are with flaws, mistakes, and everything else. Trying to be someone you're not is a waste of your life. You'll totally miss out on the joy of being who you were created to be. This doesn't mean that you totally ignore trying to  become a better person but just don't do it from wrong proves because you feel like you won't be accepted otherwise. There are people who love you. Even if you don't feel it, God loves you so much to that he sent his son to die for you. If nothing else take comfort in that.

Finley as a last word of encourGement I leave you with a po from Erin Handon my all time favorite poet. This comes from her book The Poetic Underground. 

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Alternate Ends, One Beginning

On my way back home from work one day I was thinking about how when we choose to follow Christ, we have to make a decision. We are inundated with messages from the media, the government, and all kinds of people telling us what to believe, what to do, and how to react. Do we ever stop to think why we do something? Why we choose to go down one path and not another? Or are our actions just non-responsive reactions to stimuli that we see and hear. When talking about eternity, this kind of response is fatal. If we passively brush off the decision to choose Jesus or not, we will end up spending eternity in hell separated from God. However, Jesus died to save us from this end. It is our choice to choose him and his salvation that he offers.

How are we to think about and actually choose this answer if we believe everything that we see and hear? The media says that there are many ways to heaven and that all one has to do is be good. Yet we can see from watching even ten minutes of the news that there are a lot of people doing evil things out there. There is a potential for good and evil in everyone. The crucial decision is which path they choose to follow--the good or the evil. Will they follow Jesus' way or the way of the world?

So in thinking about all of this I composed this poem in my 30 minute drive home. I entitled it "Alternate Ends, One Beginning" in hopes to communicate the two choices that one has between the good or evil path. We all begin the same with the same options yet we can end up in drastically different places depending on what path we follow.

I hope that you will choose to follow Jesus' path.

Alternate Ends, One Beginning
One choice,
One direction
Can bend our paths
Forever apart.
One call,
One rejection,
Can shatter our hearts
Fully broken.
One chance,
One confession,
Can unite our souls
Together mended.
One move,
One decision,
Can join our spirits
Divinely intended.

copyrighted by Mary Beth Weaver
All rights reserved to Mary Beth Weaver. No copying, reproducing, or using of this material unless the author is contacted.