I have a question for you to answer: Most of the time I feel like – A) a hot mess, B) an imposter, C) a frantic persona-juggling maniac, or D) God’s awesome original masterpiece.
I’m guessing your answer was NOT D, even though you secretly wish it could be.
Although you and I are masterpieces, we rarely feel like one. Our desire to belong is deep and fierce. It leads us to all sorts of attitudes and behaviors in an attempt to hide God’s original work and become a copy of whatever fits in.
The pressure to conform is high
Have you been heartbroken when someone you love changes how they act and think to fit in with the crowd? I remember one such occasion. My five-year-old son had been wishing for a little sister. Then one day he came home from kindergarten and announced what he’d learned that day—that girls have cooties. Therefore, henceforth and forevermore, he did NOT want a sister.
This is a silly example, but it illustrates the power of peer pressure to make us hide our true selves in order to conform with a group’s expectations. Many of us go to ridiculous lengths to win approval, like spending hours talking about a subject we find dismally boring, participating in hobbies we don’t enjoy, and spending money on stuff we’d rather not buy. We alter our personality (or pretend to), jettison our values, and conceal our opinions and dreams in order win acceptance with the herd. (Mooo!)
Why do we act like crazy people and make decision after decision we secretly regret? As Geri Scazzero puts it, “By adulthood we accumulate millions of messages, spoken and unspoken, from our families, cultures, even our churches. They tell us what we must do, be, think, and feel to be loved, accepted, and approved.”
Ugh!
You are God’s original masterpiece.
You and I can’t help being affected by the unspoken rules of those around us, but we don’t have to adopt them as our own or surrender to their demands. Instead, we have a choice. We can let ourselves be bullied into pretending we’re someone else, or we can quit trying to fit in and find the courage to stand out.
I don’t want to lead a divided life, constantly hiding my inner person out of fear I’ll be rejected, ridiculed, or shamed. I want to quit wasting my time, energy and money trying to win approval and instead learn to confidently and courageously stand out in the full, quirky glory of who I really am.
Are you with me?
Then together, let’s take this advice:
“Stop, stop, stop wanting to be somebody else. Do not insult your Creator by insulting His creation. … God made you the way he wanted to make you so He could use you at a particular time in a particular way; and if you start trying to be like somebody else, you’re going to miss your purpose.”
T. D. Jakes
Let’s quit trying to “improve” on God’s original masterpiece (because we can’t).
Are you ready to ditch all your old people pleasing shenanigans and put your energy toward becoming the masterpiece God intended you to be?
Wonderful!
Let these truths help you stand firm on your masterpiece status.
- The best version of you is you most authentic self—the true, God-created self behind the masks, achievements, and pretense. Hallelujah! You can throw all those uncomfortable masks away! (The pretend-to-be-someone-else kind, not the Covid kind. Sorry.)
- You weren’t created to act like be someone else in order to earn acceptance. Nor were you created to ignore your heart and your dreams in order to please others.
- Since you are a masterpiece, just as you are, you are free to accept the complete truth of who you are, from your strengths, giftings, and interests, to your weaknesses, imperfections, and quirks. Don’t let your inner critic warp your self-perception by focusing only on your weaknesses or mistakes. Instead, believe God uses all of you—even your failures—to work out his good plans.
- Healthy people respect others who are authentic. They want to see, know, and love the real you, not the fake you.
- You were not created to live in fear of what others think. Your fellow humans won’t always appreciate or understand you but that’s OK. It’s normal. It’s expected. They didn’t understand or appreciate Jesus either. It’s God’s view of you that matters, and he thinks you’re his masterpiece. Believe it!
Next steps
Prayer
Here’s a brief prayer for you to pray as you work toward embracing your identity as God’s original masterpiece.
Thank you, Lord God, that I am your handiwork. You say I am wonderfully and awesomely made. You made me who I am, placed me where I am, and love me just as I am. Help me not waste my potential conforming to the image of this world, but instead transform me through renewing my thoughts, so I can become all I was intended to be and accomplish all you designed me to do.
Action
- List three qualities you like about your true God-created original masterpiece self. Thank God for those qualities. Now, let those qualities shine forth in all you do this week.
- If someone compliments you (for those qualities or anything else) accept their words with a simple thank you. Don’t downplay or reject their words. Instead see them as a gift, a tiny act of love and appreciation from them to you.
Inspiration
Take this simple but profound quote to heart this week.
“You were born an original. Don’t die a copy.”
John Mason
