Being Who We Are for God's Glory

"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and God's grace to me has not been ineffective." 1 Cor 15:9

While St Paul does not say this exactly, we can paraphrase his thought with good results. We all need to pray we can be who it is God needs us to be. In other words, we must learn to be ourselves, nothing more. We cannot all be apostles, prophets, healers or administrators. Some of us must be the condiments in a good "stew" of people who together make up the body of Christ. When we learn to be who we are without excuses or explanation, we honor God and build God's reign.

Nature teaches us this lesson beautifully. A tree is simply a tree, a flower a flower and both invite us to celebrate the glory of God. Trees don't try to be flowers and flowers don't try to be carrots or celery or anything else. From nature we learn that when we are who God creates us to be, and allow God to direct our lives, we can add immeasurably to the strength of God's body, the church.

Learning to let God blend our lives together with other faith filled people is humbling and empowering at the same time. By not trying to control or fix everyone else, and by our willingness to take the beam out of our own eye, we let God be God and ask only for the grace to be ourselves for God's glory.

Today, take a deep breath and be yourself with all your warts.

What happens to you when you try to do too much or control others behavior?