Remember That You Are An Original
Indianapolis First Friends
Pastor Bob Henry
January 21, 2018
This morning as we center down during our time of silence and meditation, I would like to prompt our centering with a couple queries. Over the years, I have taught college classes, book studies, and led personal spiritual direction around the topic we are addressing this morning (as well, on many occasions I have personally wrestled with this topic).
Each of us are original…each are unique…but often we don’t take the time to understand or even study that (for some it is selfish and negates our spiritual journey). It was the religious scholar and mystic, Meister Eckhardt, who said it succinctly,
“No one has known God who has not known himself.”
As Quakers/Friends we believe that we all have an Inner Light, so just maybe the first place we need to explore to encounter God is within our very own lives. That is why I would like us to ponder this morning the queries from the opening pages of a book that has been integral to my spiritual formation and many others. That book is “To Be Told” by Dan B. Allender (if you have not read it – I highly recommend it). Here are the simple, but important queries, we need to ask of ourselves in light of our theme (You can find these three queries in your bulletin):
● Who am I?
● What about God am I most uniquely suited to reveal to others?
● And how is that meaning in my life best lived out?
Let’s take a few moments to center ourselves and then here our text for this morning.
Galatians 5:25-26 (The Message)
25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.
When was the last time you thought about who you were?
Every year, usually in January, I enter a process of asking myself some deep questions. For several years I went on (or took students with me) on a spiritual retreat – usually it is a silent retreat for at least 24 hours (often for the entire weekend) all to get back in touch with myself where I can hear my own heart’s desires.
The spiritual giants of the past called this experience getting to know your “true self.” Which immediately garners the question, are their parts of me that are not my true self?
For many of us, we spend a great deal of our lives trying to be somebody else. Even as Christians, we often have been told to be somebody else or at least feel the guilt of not being someone else. Let me give you an example that most of us can relate to from James Martin’s book, “Becoming Who You Are.” He says,
“I would notice that another novice whom I admired was quiet and soft-spoken and diffident and introspective. I would think, “I need to be quiet and soft-spoken and diffident and introspective.” Consequently, the following days were spent in a largely useless attempt at being quiet, until someone would eventually say, “Are you feeling alright?” The very next week I would meet someone who had a particular fondness for praying very early in the morning, and who seemed very holy, and I would say to myself, “Well, I guess I have to start praying early in the morning, too.” And then, up at five in the morning for my new regime, until that tired me out, too.”
Martin says, “My spiritual director kept reminding me that I didn’t need to be like anyone else except me. But it took a while for that to sink in.”
Does this sound familiar to you? [Pause]
Don’t we all at times get a little envious, even jealous of other people, especially when it comes to how it affects our faith? I will be honest...
● I have at times envied the monk’s life.
● I have at times envied those who have ongoing revelations from God.
● I have at times been jealous of people who actually hear from God.
● I have been envious of those that make the spiritual journey look so easy.
It is this very thing that too often causes religious guilt or even worse “Holier-than-thou” lives.
As the old adage states: The grass is always greener on the other side.
James Martin gets to the truth that what we are really doing is “minimizing our own gifts and graces and maximizing the other person’s… and vice versa….we often do the opposite with our problems and struggles: we maximize our own and minimize the other person’s.”
This becomes what one of my mentors called, “victimization.” We love to play the victim – “everyone else has a perfect life, but poor me.”
Folks, no one’s life is free of suffering. We are all going through stuff - and we need to remember that, to help put our own situations in perspective.
We may not be able to see it in their life - we don’t know what is terrorizing someone else’s soul. Yet, you and I often want to be someone else, most likely to escape our own situation. We say things like...
● If only I had her/his good looks.
● If only I had their money.
● If only I had a spouse/partner/parent/friend like that person does.
● If only I had her/his knowledge.
● If only I had _____________fill in the blank.
We can’t know All that we are asking for when wishing in this way. There is experience, pain and suffering that has gone into these lives.
● Are we willing to experience that as well?
● Or are we simply seeking a quick fix in our own lives?
We have to admit it; we live in a world who loves to compare. One of the hardest things as a minister is not to compare your meeting to other meetings, churches and ministries.
But let’s be honest, isn’t this the same for most junior high and high school students – always comparing grades, abilities, talents, looks…
Actually…isn’t this how most of life is at all ages and stages?
James Martin says, “The tendency to compare ultimately leads to despair, since our own real life can never compare with the perceived (but false) perfection of the other person’s life.”
Thus we have the phrase, “Compare and despair.”
Now, I want to pause on this point and make a 180 degree turn.
You and I have no reason to despair. Just the opposite. We are a people of hope. We are actually chosen by God.
Throughout the entire Bible, God is trying to remind his followers of this very fact…probably because we are so prone to wander, prone to compare, prone to feel guilty, prone to want to be somebody else. Just listen to what Scripture says:
He had to remind the Hebrew people in the Old Testament…
Deuteronomy 7:6 “…you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.”
1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
Revelation 17:14 “He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful”
1 Corinthians 12:18-30 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ...
I Peter 4:10 “Serve one another with the particular gifts God has given each of you, as faithful dispensers of the magnificently varied grace of God.”
Did you hear it...this is how we are described by the God of the Universe.
We are…
● Holy
● Chosen
● Treasured possession
● Royal priesthood
● Called out of darkness to Light
● Faithful
● Needed
● Indispensable
● Gifted
● Dispensers of God’s grace.
When you and I lean into this calling – this life, when we realize how God views us – that we are all the attributes I just read, it is evident that God sees us as very important to His ongoing work on this planet. Right now!
So when we choose to embrace God’s view of us , we must remember our calling…but also remember our uniqueness – our “true self” – how God wired you and me differently.
And this is where our text from Galatians 5:25-26 comes into perspective. Let me read it once again.
25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original. Galatians 5:25-26 (MSG)
Just look around this meetinghouse. Each person here this morning, each child (even the one’s down the hallway), each teenager, each adult is an original in God’s eyes – not one is alike.
We are originals made in the image of God. When we look around the room – God is represented not in simply one manner – but in a variety of ways in each of our lives.
Together, because of our originality, we have a greater privilege of seeing a clearer picture of God and sharing that picture of God with others.
What is our calling?
I agree with Dan Allender when he answers that question by saying,
“It is to make known something about God that is bound to my unique face, name, and story. It is to reveal God through my character.”
Folks, we are “Each an Original” by the grace and love of God.
So let move into waiting worship by returning to those queries from our centering time.
● Who am I?
● What about God am I most uniquely suited to reveal to others?
● And how is that meaning in my life best lived out?