Have you ever thought about how the broken pieces of our lives can be transformed into something beautiful? It’s too easy in this world of Twit-face and the Insta-famous to feel our lives don’t measure up, that our lives are perhaps too ordinary, and that we are something less than we ought to be.
As an author I find it all too easy to compare myself to others who seem to be delivering bestsellers, winning awards, having huge numbers of rabid reader fans prepared to declare from the rooftops just how awesome this particular book / series / author is. It’s too easy to feel I don’t measure up, that I’m not as good as, that I am less than.
That’s not to say I think I’m the ant’s pants and the best writer in the world; I’m not delusional. But don’t we all sometimes feel like we fall short, that nobody is paying attention, that we might be smiling / waving / screaming for attention but the world just keeps walking by?
Well, I do. Sometimes. More often than I really want to admit.
Negotiating this, trying to keep my identity rooted in Christ whilst dealing with a social media-driven world that often feels like a popularity contest, is hard. But what if we were to flip this measure of success on its head, and instead of looking at accomplishment and what being successful looks like, we just looked at being.
You. Me. Just being. Just human beings. Not human doings. Just being.
Alive. Breathing. Existing in this brief pop of time before our bodies wither and our spirits live in another realm.
Being alive to God, and truly hearing what He says.
That we are loved by Him. That you are loved by Him. That I am loved by Him.
I am loved by God.
Can you stop, pause, and linger around that phrase for a few moments?
I am loved by God.
Say it out loud if that helps.
I am loved by God.
I am. Not just other people, not just those who seem to have it all together, but me.
I am loved by God. It’s true. It’s in the Bible. Jesus said it. Go check John chapter 3 verse 16 if you have to, but when it says “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” well, God is talking about you, and about me, and about everyone who has ever lived and will ever live in this world. He loves us. Now. Always. Forever.
I am loved by God. I write romance, but the love here isn’t the romantic love we often associate with the word. This love God has for us is tough love, love that is patient, and kind, and not envious or boastful or proud. It’s not rude or self-seeking or easily angered. God’s love keeps no record of wrongs. God’s love is pure, and perfect, and it protects and it perseveres. God’s love persists, it is real, it isn’t measured by our fluctuating feelings but by his ever-generous mercies that we can see (if we stop to notice) in our every day. The kindness from a stranger. The answer to a prayer. The beauty of a sunset. God’s extravagant goodness is always there. Nothing can separate us from God’s love, so Romans 8.39 tells us.
I am loved by God. By God, Maker of the universe, the One whose hands flung stars into space. I am loved by God.
I am loved by God.
Suddenly the likes and follows of the vapor people of this world don’t really matter.
The stuff that seems important tends to fade, then disappear.
The broken pieces of my life, all my fears and failings, have been dipped in this truth, and like an old fashioned mirror dipped in silver, our lives can reflect the truth of God’s love to our world. A life that isn’t perfect, but one that can capture and reflect the vast prism of God’s love to a world that is bleeding for truth, for real love. We are God’s mirrored mosaic, every piece important, shining like stars in the sky as we hold firmly to the word of life.
I am loved by God. And so are you.
Because in the end we don’t need to meet some fickle version of the world’s idea of success.
We are loved by God. That is enough.
As for measuring up?
Because I am loved by God, I already do.
About the Author: Carolyn Miller lives in the beautiful Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, with her husband and four children. Together with her husband she has pastored a church for ten years, and worked as a public high school English and Learning and Support teacher. A longtime lover of romance, especially that of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer’s Regency era, Carolyn holds a BA in English Literature, and loves drawing readers into fictional worlds that show the truth of God’s grace in our lives. Her Regency novels include A Hero for Miss Hatherleigh, Underestimating Miss Cecilia, and Misleading Miss Verity, all available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Koorong, etc
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