THE LIE THAT STRANGLES ALL OF MANKIND

Men, women, and children walk under tremendous burden...every day.  No one is exempt; neither of age, mental capacity, nor physical qualities.  Every person is consistently broadsided by the inner discussion between our ears that we are not good enough.

This may be the phenomenon of all phenomena.

To say that this lie we tell ourselves is strange really is because such a confession doesn't begin to cover the width nor the depth of its devastating trail.  To show you how odd this lie is, consider any of us who seem to parade an over-inflated ego.  The egotistical are blemished by being super-confident.

Right?

I don't think so!

I've never met the person yet who displayed excess confidence who was not a child-in-hiding at the core.  Every person is smitten with uncertainty and insecurity regarding self.  No exceptions.  True, each of us possesses gifts from God which encourage others; even inspire.  But I still say there is this extra person we each carry within who wears us thin with inner arguments of lack here and wishful thinking there.

If I could meet a CEO or a Queen or a movie star, I would know immediately what I would want to talk about.  I would want to speak of assurance that they are more adequate in God than they imagine.  While their faces are plastered upon magazine covers, the famous scurry to feel better, appear better, do better because even their fame is not enough assurance that they are valued for being simply who they are.

You and me?  No different.  That greener grass on the other side of the fence is finally discovered to be a mirage.  The grass is green, for sure, but there has never been a fence.  We are all the same.  Fame or not?  Success or not?  We are all the same....in great need of the God-assurance that we are lovable and loved...by the Creator of wonder and awe.

I wish not to pedestalize anyone.  I merely wish to remove your unnecessary limp. Living by comparison is an assault upon the good heart.  Either way we do it, comparing ourselves to others is a cover-up; a very useless one at that.  We don't need to feel we are better than others for we are not; but we are wonderful.  Neither do we need to feel less than another; because we are wonderful in the way God made each of us.

I would ask that you do more than nod in agreement.  I would ask that you believe it. Very good lives are being wasted wishing to be someone else somewhere else somehow else.  This is a discarding of good, valuable, powerful material.

The lie that strangles all of mankind is that we seem to volunteer to believe the worst and the ugliest and the stupidest about ourselves.  Surely we are not called to be self-gawking egoists.  But just as surely we are to treasure the uniqueness God has dared to entrust to each of our personalities.

May we live like we really like life!  That would be a good start to the week, don't you think?