"the me I want to be" Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Me I Don't Want To Be

Reflections
I wasn't surprised to see this chapter title. How can you understand what you're striving for unless you know how to recognize what you're avoiding? I happen to be reading this chapter at a time in my life when I feel like God is doing amazing things...everywhere! Having recently moved to Tennessee and with the possibility of moving back to Ohio looming in my near future (not because I'd rather be in Ohio...believe me, I LOVE living in Tennessee), I must say God has not been working in my life the way he usually does. Its been a little more difficult to recognize God around me and to feel his presence in my life.


One of my best friends has moved to nearby Ft. Campbell as well. God is really working in her life too! On monday we went to dinner together and she told me all about God's magnificent work. I noticed a number of differences between our recent experiences with God, however. One simple difference is that she feels an abnormally strong sense of adventure and that God is opening doors for her to travel. In these moments she feels the most faithful. I feel an abnormally strong sense of restraint and that God is opening opportunities that require me to stay still, waiting for the right moment to move. In these moments I feel the most faithful.

Ortberg quotes Henri Nouwen when he writes, "Spiritual greatness has nothing to do with being greater than others. It has everything to do with being as great as each of us can be." It is not healthy for me to compare my faithfulness to my friend's and vice versa. God created us as unique individuals. Although we can share moments in our lives with each other we will always have unique experiences.

Quotes
If I want to become that person I want to be, I will have to come to grips with the counterfeits who elbow in to take his place -- the rivals who can keep me from becoming the me I am meant to be.

God designed us to delight in our acutal lives.

When I am growing toward the me I want to be, I am being freed from the me I pretend to be.

Sometimes the me I pretend to be leaks out in small acts of vanity.

We never have to pretend with God, and genuine brokenness pleases God more than pretend spirituality.

If I am ever going to become the me I want to be, I have to start by being honest about the me that I am.

Comparison kills spiritual growth.

Each one of us has a me that we think we should be, that is at odds with the me that God made us to be.

Even you can't tell yourself how to change, because you didn't create you.

If I think God's aim is to produce rule-followers, spiritual growth will always be an obligation rather than a desire of my heart.

To be spiritually alive means to receive power from God to have a positive impact on your world.

Saint Irenaeus wrote, "The glory of God is a human being fully alive; and to be alive consists in beholding God."

When you fail to become the person God designed, all the rest of us miss out on the gift you were made to give.

That step towards God is always waiting, no matter what you have done or how you have messed up your life.