After all I am ONLY Human ... the very best that God could have created!

A fellow pastor, Ray Boegen, tells the story of a man who went to his doctor with an ailment and received a prescription in the illegible scrawl doctors sometimes use. Well, the man got well before getting it filled, but he decided to keep it … just in case. Turned out to be a good idea. The man used the illegible prescription as a bus pass for years, got into World Series games with it, convinced a cop not to give him a speeding ticket with it, and when his daughter played it on the piano she received a scholarship to Julliard.

There are times that the story of our lives seems a little like the illegible scrawl of the prescription … just a bunch of squiggly lines on the pages of time. Nothing more and nothing less! Squiggly lines that can be misinterpreted misread and simply ignored by others.

The opportunity to have a life of meaning and purpose lurks within everyone’s reach. If that is true, then why are so many of us living with the feeling that our life is meaningless? All of us are existing – breathing, eating, sleeping – but, beyond the simple daily activities of our lives not much more.

Dr. Ernest A. Fitzgerald makes the guess that the reason is “that we do not feel we have what it takes to live successfully.” He goes on to share, “that proper appreciation of oneself is not a sin but a necessary prerequisite to every other human association.”

Part of the problem, at least from my perspective, is that we live in a world which values things more than it does people … power more than peace … success more than righteousness. The result is that the significance of our life is diminished, devalued and discarded.

We don’t feel or believe that our life has any worth. My usual greeting, “Hello, beautiful!” is usually met with a huge disclaimer and a “Boy do you need glasses!” The significance of your beauty is not found in your outward appearance because that image is too fragile and fleeting. Beauty, real beauty is much deeper than the skin and skeleton in which our soul and spirit resides.

It would be good to remember God doesn’t make junk. You have been created in God’s image. And, thus, you ARE beautiful!

Related to this is the horrible phrase, “After all I am ONLY human.” We need to re-think that concept as well. Remember that God created Adam and Eve and said, “That’s good.” Therefore, to be Human is to be the BEST God created you to be … to be less than God created is to be inhuman. In creating you God instilled you with a worth beyond any measure and as one author states: “your God given worth is deeper that sea and wider than the ocean.”

As a child of God we should embrace the declaration: I am a creation of God almighty, I am beautiful, I am human … Praise God! I am worthy! I am significant! I have value and purpose in this life, regardless of my physical, financial, or mental limitations.

Over the course of my ministry I have always been amazed that most people honestly do not believe that they have any talents. Now I do admit that it might come from our general definition of the word talent. When we hear that word we usually make the leap to the standards: singing, playing an instrument, dancing, acting or some athletic ability.

We need and should change that misguided idea also. Dr. Fitzgerald shares a story about Abe Lincoln. “During the Civil War, General Sherman was sent with his army to carry out a strategic mission. For some reason Sherman stood idle for days and did nothing. Lincoln, in his own subtle way, became impatient and sent Sherman a message. He said, ‘General, if you are not going to use your army, do you mind if I borrow it? We have a war going on.’”

Dr. Fitzgerald goes on the make this observation: “Lincoln’s point is clear. A little talent used is better than a lot of talent never used. It is also true that a little effort used in the proper place is more effective than a lot of effort in the wrong place. You balance a tire on your automobile with only a few ounces of lead – not with a ton of weight.”

Conclusion: Life could be richer and far more fulfilling if we spent less time trying to measure up to someone else and more time using what we have. The “someone else” usually was our parents or maybe an important mentor. And the “measuring up” is trying to fit our life into their “life agenda” which they superimposed on us.

Don’t allow your life to be just squiggly lines on the pages of time. God created you with a purpose in mind … a significant purpose at that. The significance begins with EVERYONE you know and meet. As you meet them you are touching their souls!

Quote for today: The folly of human nature is that even though we know where the answers lie--God's Word--we don't turn there for fear of what it will say. Jerry Lambert