Does perception match your reality?
Are we symbolism or substance?
Do you ever have trouble making your new passwords match when doing a reset? I do. I guess my fingers don’t work very well at times, and after entering new passwords and the confirmation password, I am still surprised by an error message telling me those didn’t match. I actually (sometimes) warn my computer with a “you’d better match this time” when entering another confirmation password for the 3rd time. Don’t you love it when the website gives you the chance to actually view the two? I do.
There is another matching process that I am considering more and more, and that is the match-up of my real me to the perception others have of me. Carol and I are in enough relationships and for long enough to have friends with whom we can have those conversations. Was it Socrates who is quoted as saying, “An unexamined life is not worth living”? I think he was onto something there, don’t you?
I remember what a few of the self-examinations down through the years have yielded. As I list a few of mine, would you think with me about your own times of either self-examination or confrontation from others that brought you to a place of decision?
Personal:
*As a kid at practice, I got a bloodied eye after being hit by a baseball screaming down the third base line where I was waiting to field and throw it to first base, I came to “self-realization” that I was no longer able to bat or field without fear. I quit the team. (Asking for help would have been a good idea. I didn’t.)
*Being rejected by a friend early in my junior high years led to a self-realization that I was not enough. If I was not enough for her, then I must not be enough of what it takes to make and keep a friend. (Talking to someone would have been a good idea. I didn’t.)
*Coming into my mid-teens there was a time when I was quiet before God and realized that though I was a sinner and deserved death and hell as a result of my sin, Jesus Christ loved me and wanted me. Holy Spirit examined me and the Father invited me to come – sin and all – to a Savior who died so that my sin would not hold me any longer. I realized that though by myself I am not enough, Jesus makes me enough by accepting me as I am, then promising to change me into His likeness. (I spoke with some people after that and they helped me understand.)
*My wife’s opinion matters more than the opinion of most others, as you would guess. She knows the areas where I still struggle, and we actually can have honest conversations about them and her struggles too. We like and love and accept each other even after 49 years of learning that neither of us is perfect, but both of us are worth loving. The consistent and persistent ability to reveal the good, bad, and ugly and to be able to celebrate the blessings and forgive the offenses keeps us growing.
When you look in the mirror, do you see the powerful lion who is in charge or do you see a timid kitten full of fear and caution? God knows you are both – at any given time – bold or timid. Right? What a wonderful God we serve! He sees it all; knows it all, loves you thoroughly and keeps you by His power. What does God really think of me and you? His opinion of you is true and accurate. He loves you, knows you are worth loving, won’t abandon you. He values you very much. That is His view of you!
Oh, it is very important how well we live this life for Jesus because others need to see the real deal, don’t they? They won’t see a perfect person this side of heaven, but when they see your life, good deeds, acts of love, and your being conformed to the image of Jesus; then they will have a much better idea of the reality of the Savior we love, the God we serve, the Holy Spirit who is making the changes and the truth of God’s Holy Word. God calls us to be holy. Am I/are we growing up into Christ-likeness. When others see our lives, whose image are we revealing?