The Beloved

As I awakened this morning, my eyes immediately fell to the book Abba's Child laying on my night stand. I resisted for a few moments, thinking I needed to be "more spiritual" and read my Bible instead. The pull to the book, however, was stronger than I could resist and I was unsuccessful with my attempts to "law myself" into reading the Bible. So, I reached for the book and opened it up to where I closed it last, Chapter 3.

As I read, I became more intrigued by the concept Brennan Manning discusses in this incredible book, the concept of the beloved. Then on page 51, I read these words, "While the imposter draws his identity from past achievements and the adulation of others, the true self claims identity in its belovedness. We encounter God in the ordinariness of life: not in the search for spiritual highs and extraordinary, mystical experiences but in our simple presence in life." Wow! Why is it so difficult for everyone (me included) to just be themselves, to just live life as God created us, without performing or putting on a façade for those around us? This "imposter person" that we have created for ourselves has us all deceived into thinking that our identity is found in what we do, where we live, what we drive, who we associate with, etc. All the while, God is sitting there waiting for us to take a moment of quiet solitude and find Him, so he can tell us who we really are – the beloved.

What does it mean to be the beloved? It means that we embrace the inherent truth that God loves us just as we are. We don't have to change for him to love us. We don't have to perform and be the best at everything for him to love us. He loves us just as we are. He loves us with all of our faults, all of our insecurities, all of our mistakes…He loves everything about us. He created us as human and humans are imperfect creatures. He loves what He created – why do we fight so hard to be something different than what He created us to be.

I personally, am very saddened by "cookie cutter" Christians, those who try and mold themselves and take on the persona of someone they have admiration or respect for. No! This is not what God intended. To become "plastic" or to be like everyone else is to deny the masterpiece that God has created in you. To mold your personality around societal expectations or to become like another person (other than Christ) is to create an "imposter" and insult God's creative intellect. This would be the equivalent of allowing a child to finger-paint over a DaVinci or a Picasso. When God created each person, it was an original, a masterpiece. Why then do we feel the need to create our own persona or worse yet, imitate someone else's persona?

The question we have to ask ourselves is this – Do we want to be a worthless piece of art, a cheap imitation, or do we want to be an original? As for me, I know what I want. I want to be an original. I choose to embrace the valuable me, the original me that God created. I choose to be me, not a replica, not a copy, not an imposter, but an original. Imagine how beautiful the world would be if everyone else did the same.