Do You Define Yourself By Your Insecurities?

In a previous post we met Liar and Hider, the Giant brothers. If you missed that one, hop on over and get to know who they are. Go ahead…I’ll wait for you here.

As you recall, you are on a quest to find a diamond, and in your way you have encountered the two Giant brothers, Liar Giant and Hider Giant. Hider knows where the diamond is, but you can’t question him properly because his brother won’t stop distracting you with shiny objects.

The story continues

First Liar pulls out a sparkling glass bottle and thrusting it toward you, says, “What do you want with a crummy old diamond anyway? It’s not very useful. Look at this bottle, made of beautifully cut glass. It can hold many things. That stupid diamond can’t hold anything.”

Taking the bottle in your hand, you notice that it is not empty; indeed it has been filled to the top with slips of paper. “Hey, what are all of these things in here for? Can I pull one out?” you ask.

“If you wish,” answers Liar with a thin-lipped smile. “It’s your bottle now.”

Removing the paper closest to the mouth of the bottle and opening it, you read aloud, “’You were a mediocre student.’ That’s odd. I really wasn’t the brightest in the class, was I?” Letting the paper flutter limply to the clay path you look up at Liar. “I’m going to go talk with Hider about that diamond.”

“Don’t you want to know what’s on the next paper?”

“Well, yeah, I do,” you say, as you withdraw the next one. “‘You’re rather plain. Not too ugly, but certainly not attractive.'” you read. “Well, that’s true, too, isn’t it?” you think out loud.

And on it goes, paper after paper: ‘You bore people,’ ‘Both your nose and your teeth are crooked,’ ‘You’re not really that creative.’

By the time the bottle is empty an hour later, and with a parade’s worth of ticker tape piled around your feet, you’re feeling pretty miserable. So many negative messages and all of them true. There’s no sense in arguing. You were a C student. Your nose does hook a bit. You did see a few yawns while you were addressing the other members of the book club lat Tuesday.

We often define ourselves in a strange way

One of the largest hindrances to knowing what it is that God created us to do is the pesky tendency we all have to define ourselves by our insecurities rather than by our suppressed potential. We actually willingly sabotage ourselves with thoughts like the ones you read from Liar’s bottle.

If you are brave enough, if you really want to begin to push past Liar so you can talk to his brother, take those papers lying on the ground and start to divide them into three piles.

Three piles

One pile should be accusations that are true, but changeable. For example, if you do really bore people when you talk, perhaps it’s time to learn more about public speaking. Make a written list of your changeable personal attributes that cause you to feel insecure, and begin to do something about them. Just the action toward change will boost your confidence. Don’t dwell on them, work toward change! I think, though, that you’ll find this to be a pretty small pile.

Another pile should contain characteristics that are true, but not changeable (at least not without drastic measures, like surgery.) Let’s logically consider the fact that you were a mediocre student:

It’s in the past and not changeable.
It has no bearing on who you are or what you can accomplish today.
You’re in really good company. Most of us are average. That’s why it’s called average.
No one really cares what grades you got in school.
You can learn about things that interest you just fine.
Etc.

And about your crooked nose:

Bob’s eyes aren’t even.
Jackie’s laugh sounds like a horse.
Fred’s ears are big.
Lucy limps because of a hip infection she suffered as a child.
None of us is ecstatic about our looks – even the friend whom you think is a ravishing beauty laments that she looks like a puffer fish.

The truth is, you have to stop focusing on what you cannot change. Stop smacking your head against the wall, because all you’ll accomplish is hurting your head and wrecking the wall.

The third pile should contain things that are false, although they seem true at first glance. These are often very vague insinuations such as “I was never worth anything,” and “I’m not good at anything.” Because they are non-specific, they can’t really be correct. They simply play on our feelings, kicking us when we are already down.

What does God say?

Take a look at Jeremiah 17:7-8. The person who trusts in the Lord is like a tree planted by water, into which it sends its roots. It does not fear when the heat comes, because its leaves will remain green. It does not fear drought because it knows it will continue to grow fruit.

Come on now! If you are saved, you are God’s child! If you are His child, you have the right to be planted in His firm river bank with your roots in HIM. Why would you define yourself by anything less, least of all your past, your averagely flawed facial features, or your inability to understand algebra?

Beware: It is possible to be saved and yet not planted by the water. The prerequisite is that you TRUST THE LORD.

The enemy of trust is doubt, and doubt is sown by accusations. Lucifer, the anointed cherub, was named by God because we was Heaven’s light-bearer. Once he fell, his name changed to Satan, which means the adversary. Revelation 12:10 identifies him as our accuser. That’s some pretty bad news. Ther’e good news though. We are promised in James 4:7 that if we resist the devil, he will flee. Resist him!

Stay tuned for the next exciting installment of the Giant Brothers and the Quest for the Diamond of Purpose!