The Wonder Woman

What does it look like to be a “good” woman? Is it the waitress at the restaurant that all the men are falling over themselves for? Is it the genius boss at the office, looking powerful in her tight black skirt? Is it the funny, popular art teacher at the high school whose students adore her?

            Culture and media today have created a picture of the “perfect” woman – a woman who is, of course, visually stunning but beyond even that, she is powerful, witty, cunning, intelligent, and, though she may have a “fatal flaw”, is categorically fierce. Characters like Katniss Everdeen The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins), Wonder Woman (Wonder Woman, Warner Bro. Pictures), Black Widow (The Avengers, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures) or even Hermione Granger (The Harry Potter Series, J.K. Rowling) teach that being a hardcore girl who can beat up anyone who crosses her path is ideal. In a twist of irony, these characters give moldable minds the impression that if you are not extraordinary in some way, there must be something wrong with you. Because of this so-called “Wonder Woman” ideal, young women are growing up pursuing an unattainable, unrealistic dream-version of a person. That does not mean that it is wrong to meet the world head on if that is the way your personality chooses to react to life, or even that it is wrong to read books or watch movies with such characters, but it does mean that something in the media needs to change (Berquist, Jon L.). 

THE VIRTUOUS WOMAN

Young women who have grown up in the faith often turn to the passage Proverbs 31:10-31 for a more realistic insight on what it looks like to be a “good” woman. This is the proverb that gives a picture of what an “excellent wife” (verse 10, ESV) is according to the author, who was inspired by God. However, this often leads women to strive for yet another unattainable image – the “Proverbs 31 woman”. That is not the intent of this passage (Wolters, Albert M.). Instead of focusing so much on attaining the attributes of the “Proverbs 31 Woman”, girls should strive towards becoming women of noble character. What does a woman of noble character look like? Who should we be emulating, then? Who better than the great heroines of the Old Testament, who lived their lives through the strength of God; loving, making mistakes, and being human. Eve demonstrates how to be women of diligence. Rahab is a picture of God’s redemption, and of the faith necessary to be a virtuous woman. Deborah shows us the importance of preparation, and of exhibiting strength and dignity in submission. Ruth is characteristically loyal and her obedience to those in authority over her paints a very clear picture of God’s expectation of women. And Esther’s wisdom and compassion show that there is more to a noble woman than merely keeping house. The attributes of these women, as fellow females, are what we should be doing our best to emulate (Wolters, Albert M.).

THE DILIGENCE OF A NOBLE WOMAN

            Eve is not the most notorious woman in the Old Testament, but she is one of the most well-known. After all, her one mistake – eating the forbidden fruit and sharing it with her husband – caused all of humanity and the earth to be cursed. But Eve was created perfect, and she was created to be a helper for her husband, Adam. Eve was fashioned out of man for the specific reason of being his counterpart (Genesis 2:18-25). Eve fulfilled this position with gusto (Nowell, Irene). Every day for as long as the two remained in the garden, Eve helped Adam with daily tasks. It was a perfect environment, and she could not even think of complaining. She took care of Adam, and even after the Fall and the two were kicked out of Eden, Eve fulfilled her duties (Genesis 4:1-2). Proverbs 31:15 says, “She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens.” Eve did not have any maidens – she was the only woman on the earth for a while – but Genesis makes it clear that she took care of her family. We women must be diligent all across our lives. We must be diligent in our daily tasks, diligent to share the gospel with others, and diligent to actively seek out God’s will for our lives (Wolters, Albert M.). Diligence, the opposite of laziness, is being purposeful in industriousness, which is an essential life skill for anyone, but especially for the woman of noble character who desires to please God.

 

THE FAITH OF A NOBLE WOMAN

Both Jewish and Christian writers have attempted to prove that Rahab in the New Testament, mentioned in our Lord’s genealogy and by Paul as a woman of great faith, was a different woman than who is clearly spoken of in the Old Testament. To them, it was so abhorrent to have someone known as a “harlot” included among the lineage of Jesus. However, I believe that she is a worthy inclusion, and a beautiful picture of God’s grace. Rahab was the only resident of Jericho who resolved to fear and obey the Israelite God, even before her interaction with the Israelite spies. She had reason to help the people of Yahweh – because she had heard the stories of His great power and believed them (Joshua 2:10-11). After Jericho’s demise, God kept his promise to her and saved Rahab’s family, who then continued to make their home with Israel (Liung, Inger).

Rahab was a prostitute, the lowest of the low, until she realized faith in the God of the Israelites – and He blessed her by not only rescuing her from death, but by putting her in the lineage of the Messiah. This reminds me of Proverbs 31:10 – “…she is far more precious than jewels.” Rahab was saved from the destruction of Jericho because of her incredible faith in a God that had obviously revealed Himself to her in a supernatural way. God had a reason for Rahab to live, and she was blessed by being a woman of noble character. Rahab was precious to God, and we are precious to Him as well. A great faith will bring about blessing – Proverbs 31:30 says that “a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. (Wolters, Albert M.) Rahab is one of only two women mentioned in Hebrews 11 as examples of godly faith (the other is Sarah, Abraham’s wife)(Hebrews 11:31). Out of Rahab’s weaknesses she was made strong in faith, through the power of God. She focused on the godly mission of the spies and realized that they represented the God of Israel. Not only did Rahab believe in the existence of God, but she took literally what He had revealed to her through faith and acted on it. In Joshua 2:9-11, Rahab affirms that she believes the Lord and His works: “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how to LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kinds of the Amorites…” Notice how the letters of the word “lord” are all capitalized in this reference – the translators are referring to the Jewish concept of Yahweh, which means that Rahab believed in the true, all-powerful God of Israel. Rahab lived by faith, not by sight – she did not see the events occur with her own eyes, but she had faith to believe that Israel’s God was powerful enough to take care of her and her family (Davidson, Richard M.). 

Faith like Rahab’s is demonstrated in a woman of noble character by her willingness to let God guide her life. She always puts God first, no matter how difficult this may be. Of course, in practical life, we women will fall short of this – still it is a goal that we should all be striving for. All of us, men and women alike, must show faith in the unseen in order to believe in Christ Jesus and his death and resurrection on the cross, but, more than that, in our lives, faith must be demonstrated by how we make decisions, who we choose to spend our time with, and how we think, speak, and act (Wolters, Albert M.)

THE STRENGTH OF A NOBLE WOMAN

            Many things come to mind when thinking about Deborah the Judge. She was an incredible woman of God, a military strategist, a poet, and a prophet. Some say that she had a fiery nature, but we know for sure that she gave judgements from under a palm tree and that she prepared to go into battle with Barak (Lindars, Barnabus).

            Proverbs 31:25 makes it clear that strength is one of the trademarks of a noble woman:“Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.” It takes strength to get through life as a human, whatever gender you may be, but it definitely takes the strength of the Lord to be a woman. Strength is the ability to get done what needs to be done. Dignity is the ability to do that in a way that is deserving of honor and respect. Dignity brings out the softer side of being a woman (Wolters, Albert M.). According to Judges 4, Deborah trusted God’s word for what it was, and was not afraid to go with Barak into battle when he demanded it – nor was she afraid to call Barak out on his weakness (“I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” – Judges 4:9) Deborah was strong in that she took God at His word and followed through, and she was dignified in that she respected and supported Barak, without being afraid to challenge him (Lindars, Barnabus).

It is good for young women to challenge men to put God first and ask how a given situation brings glory to God, even though we as women are called to live in submission to the men in our lives (Nowell, Irene). Submission is a hot-button topic in the Christian world today, and the previously mentioned “Wonder Woman” trope that has bombarded entertainment is a direct attack against this Biblical topic.  

THE LOYALTY OF A NOBLE WOMAN

            Ruth is one of the most looked to women of the Bible when it comes to role models. She is known for her loyalty, her generosity, and her obedience to her mother-in-law, Naomi.

            The woman of noble character is also known for her loyalty. Proverbs 31:11 says this: “The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.” She has proven herself to be a trustworthy person, and her husband and others around her know that they will lose nothing by trusting her, that she will be loyal to them (Wolters, Albert M.). Ruth could not bear to part with Naomi even though her mother-in-law had given her the choice to go back to her family with no hard feelings. We have no way of knowing anything more about Ruth’s background, but perhaps her choice to stay was due to a strong love for her late husband Mahlon, or simply the strong bond that she had formed with her mother-in-law, or that she knew Naomi was hurting and didn’t want her to be alone in these trying times. At any rate, Ruth chose to stay, demonstrating a faith in Naomi’s God and a loyalty unsurpassed and pure in its form (Berquist, Jon L.).

            Part of loyalty is being obedient. This is reminiscent of the submission commanded of women in the Bible – we are not only to be submissive to our husbands, but also to those in authority around us. Obedience does not show a weakness, as it is sometimes portrayed in popular culture today; rather, it shows humility and Christlikeness. Ruth obeyed Naomi when she instructed her to go into the fields, and also when she was told to lay at Boaz’s feet (Ruth 3:4)(Berquist, Jon L.).

            The woman of noble character is called to live a selfless life, giving others a reason to trust her with her loyalty and trustworthiness. She respects those in authority over her, takes care of her elders, and does not complain even at seemingly odd requests (Wolters, Albert M). Ruth is a great example of a woman of noble character who has her heart in the right place.

THE WISDOM OF A NOBLE WOMAN

            Proverbs 31:26 says of the noble woman: “She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.” This verse seems to describe the prudence and compassion of Queen Esther perfectly.  

            Esther was a young Jewish woman who was chosen by King Ahasuerus after his first queen, Vashti, was deposed for refusing to dance pornographically in front of the king’s officials. The King was not aware of Esther’s ethnicity, and so when his official Haman organized a plot to destroy her uncle, Mordecai, and all of the Jewish people, she was able to reveal this and save her people. Was Esther brave? Certainly, that is undisputed. But a trait of Esther that hardly ever receives the limelight is that of her God-given wisdom – she was in danger for her life, but she still spent a few days fasting a praying in order to gain the wisdom of God in this situation. Even through this, God was at work, and Esther, an orphan and a slave who was serving the lust of a pagan king, became a heroine of Israel. She is clearly a wise young woman (Nowell, Irene).

            Wisdom is not the same as intelligence. Intelligence entails being smart and having head knowledge, while wisdom is putting into practice what you have learned from God in every aspect of your life. The noble woman seeks God’s wisdom for everything.

            Esther is also extremely compassionate. She extends her arms to those in need – namely, her suffering people. She was a woman who knew what needed to be done, and she did it, despite fearing for her life. She reached out to those in need. Queen Esther sets an example in compassion and kindness. Even in her dealings with Haman, she did not confront him in an antagonistic way – instead, she invited him to two feasts with the King where she calmly “outed” his evil ways, so to speak (Wolters, Albert M.).

            Today’s noble woman is one who reaches out to God for His wisdom. She is continually in the Word and in prayer, communing with God daily. She never rushes her Quiet Time - well, maybe occasionally - but she loves her time with the Lord and cherishes it, because only through seeping herself in the truth can she be saturated in His wisdom and live her life with it. She sets an example in compassion to those around her, extending her hands to the needy, never compromising when she sees someone who needs her tender loving care. Like Esther, she is brave and knows what needs to be done, and without complaining, she seeks God’s guidance first and then accomplishes the task in faith (Wolters, Albert M.).

THE IGNOBLE WOMAN

            In contrast to all of these women who are great examples of a virtuous character, Gomer (Hosea 1:2) was a woman of the opposite personality. She was called by God a “woman of whoredom” and she continually cheated on her husband Hosea. God used this as a picture of Israel running after other gods. In the time of Gomer and Hosea, Israel was falling into severe moral decay. Gomer’s unfaithfulness would serve as an example of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God – Hosea used it as an object lesson to explain to the people of Israel how God felt about their sin and warned of the punishment to come if Israel did not come back to their first love, God’s love which tolerates no rivals (Davidson, Richard M.).  In the same way, we women must remember that God must come first. Like the Israelites, we often have a tendency to let ourselves be distracted from what is really important. Anything can be a “god” in our lives, from our image, to television, to boys, to our hobbies. It is so, so easy to get swept away in this brightly colored world that moves at the instantaneous speed of electricity. But we need to keep our head above this swift-moving stream. There is nothing that pleases God more than our attention and desire to bring Him glory, and when we let anything else captivate our attention, we lose the relationship with God that we were designed to have (Liung, Inger). Remember Proverbs 31:30: “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”  

THE WONDER WOMAN OF NOBLE CHARACTER

            Emma Watson said this about her character Hermione Granger and the Wonder Woman trope in today’s media: “Young girls are told you have to be the delicate princess. Hermione taught them that you can be the warrior.”  This completely encompasses what young women are being told today – we don’t have to be the delicate princess. We can be the warrior. Except that it’s not okay to be the princess anymore. That has become a stereotype associated with prudes. And it’s ironic that in a society that says, “Be whatever you want and we’ll accept you!” no one seems to accept anyone.

           

God, however, makes princesses, and he makes warriors. He makes the short girls with hot tempers and the tall, quiet, graceful girls. He makes geeky blondes and sexy brunettes, and vice versus. He makes women who like to party and women who would rather binge Netflix all day. He makes women of all shapes and sizes and personalities and He loves them all equally, and we are all called to be noble women. Our task is not to try to impress a world in which impressing anyone is impossible, and our task is not to become a warrior in a society that clearly has enough of them already. Our job is to glorify the One who has saved us from eternal separation from Him – not to glorify ourselves or others whose opinions of us will never be satisfied. Some of us are called to stand up for what we believe. Like Deborah or Esther, these are the women who speak up for the lost and who go to battle for what they believe in. But others are simply called to honor our family members like Ruth, to diligently serve our husbands like Eve, and to live out our faith as an example to others, like Rahab. There is no “wonder woman”. Each is perfect, and valued, and beautiful in their own way, as God has created them for a purpose in this life. What the noble woman learns, over time, is that it is better to look deeper than the surface, at the needs and hurts and loves of others, than at the surface qualities like how a woman conducts herself. Only when we learn to put aside our own insecurities and focus on others can we truly be called a “woman of noble character.”

WORKS CITED

Berquist, Jon L. Reclaiming her story: The witness of women in the Old Testament. Wipf and

 Stock Publishers, 2006.

Davidson, Richard M. Flame of yahweh: Sexuality in the Old Testament. Hendrickson Publishers,

 2007.

Lindars, Barnabas. "Deborah's Song: Women in the Old Testament." (1983).

Ljung, Inger. Silence or suppression: attitudes towards women in the Old Testament. Acta

 Universitatis Upsaliensis, 1989.

Nowell, Irene. Women in the Old Testament. Liturgical Press, 1997.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016. Print.

Watson, Emma.

Wolters, Albert M. The Song of the Valiant Woman: Studies in the Interpretation of Proverbs 31:

 10-31. Paternoster, 2001.

Trusting God through the Highs and Lows

AN UPHILL BATTLE

Fighting the good fight is always an uphill battle, no matter what your story is. There are always good times and bad times. Even on days when it’s not raining, the sun’s heat can be sweltering. One has to take life on this earth with a grain of salt. Or, in a twist of irony, one could be the salt of this earth. And, as Christians, we are called to be just that. 

            However, how can you act like salt when you feel like dirt? And how long can you go on trusting God when he doesn’t seem to care about your feelings? How can you concentrate on others when your basic emotional needs aren’t being met? When the climb isn’t only uphill, it’s completely vertical? 

EPIDEMICALLY SPEAKING 

            Emotional instability is becoming an epidemic in our society, and especially in our young people. Approximately 1 in 5 youth aged 13–18 (21.4%) experiences a severe mental disorder at some point during their life¹. 6.9% of young adults in the U.S.—16 million—had at least one major depressive episode², and mood disorders, including major depression, dysthymic disorder and bipolar disorder, whether diagnosed or undiagnosed, are the third most common cause of hospitalization in the U.S. for both youth and adults aged 18–44³. In an age where minds are constantly being bombarded with worldly messages, it isn’t a far cry to believe that mental health has plummeted in recent decades. 

            This spike of emotional instability has created a need for professionals who know the mind inside and out, and the psychiatrists and therapists of the world did not disappoint. Secular specialists have come out of the woodwork to grind the poor minds of these searching souls, molding them like so much putty, but the results have not changed significantly enough to determine whether or not their treatment is working. Even so, Christians with mental health issues still take their troubles to the worldly shrinks. Why is this? 

            For anyone suffering from depression, anxiety, or other emotional or mental health issues, the world is a bleak one. But for a Christian, the struggle is augmented by the confusion of wanting to be right with the Lord while still being unable to control the emotions that well up from deep within. Many Christians feel ashamed of their feelings and do not want to share them with Christian counselors for fear they will say one of two things: either, that they are sinning by dwelling on their "passions of the flesh", or that they are faking their feelings for attention. Neither option sounds like the truth, so the fading Christian turns to the only other option available to them: the secular therapist, who will invariably lead them astray. 

THIS WORLD OF GRAY

            I know this because I have lived this lie. For far too long, I was the one sitting in the pew, watching smiling church-goers sing about the joy of the Lord while my world was shadowy and gray. I didn’t know why. All I wanted was for God to take away my bitterness, my loneliness, my numbness. I prayed but I felt like my prayers didn’t get as far as the ceiling. I read my Bible every day, striving for the connection I had once felt with my Lord, but I felt nothing. I began to think that maybe, just maybe, God had decided that I wasn’t worth His time. I began to descend a downward spiral. 

            I began to lose hope. 

            Until one day, someone told me something completely life-changing. “You may not be able to choose your feelings right now, but you can choose to trust God, even if you don’t feel Him close by.”  

            Isaiah 26: 3-4 says this about trust: “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.” Trust is a choice, friends. And even though trusting God through depression or mental illness feels like clinging to a rock while being tossed by a sea storm in the ghost-black darkness, that Rock will never falter. You just have to choose to cling to it. 

TRUST IS WORTH IT

            Sure, it’s still a challenge. Life is all uphill, from the moment we’re born until we meet Jesus at the pearly gates. But God is there, whether we are on the mountains of life, or crawling through the valleys. Tauren Wells's song Hills and Valleys is always an encouragement to me, because God is the one who put me on the high places, and he will not leave me in the low places. Getting up, getting dressed, and going about each day will still be hard, but it will be worth it, and one day, you’ll wake up and find that life is a little bit easier. Don’t seek the help you need through secular mental health professionals. Find someone who can keep you accountable, who can encourage you, and who can remind you of that Rock when you have lost sight of it. God does care about your feelings. 

You, fellow Christians, have not “lost your saltiness” (Matthew 5:13-16) just because you are in a low spot right now. Get help. There are many Christian help lines who will see these diseases for what they are and not make them into something they are not. 
Choose to trust. 
Choose to hope. 
Choose to live. 

             

Citations 

1.    Any Disorder Among Children. (n.d.) Retrieved August 14, 2017, from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/prevalence/any-disorder-among-children.shtml

2.    Major Depression Among Adults. (n.d.). Retrieved August 14, 2017 from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/prevalence/major-depression-among-adults.shtml

3.   Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, The Department of Health & Human Services. (2009). HCUP Facts and Figures: Statistics on Hospital-based Care in the United States, 2009. Retrieved August 14, 2017, from http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/factsandfigures/2009/pdfs/FF_report_2009.pdf

I Hope You Worship

What is Worship?

Most everyone is familiar with the term "worship". To some, the word conjures up images of believers falling on their faces, moaning to whatever deity they adhere to - to others, the word means simple songs, sung from the heart - and to still others, the word is ambiguous in nature, floating around an ideal they cannot imagine or describe.

Growing up in a Christian household in which we regularly attended our Baptist church, worship, to me, was music. My father, uncle, aunts and grandfather were all musically talented and involved in leading the church's morning songs, so the term "worship" became synonymous in my mind with my father's clear, loud voice and my aunts pretty a capella harmony. I took to heart verses like Psalm 108:1: "My heart, O Lord, is steadfast; I will sing and make music with all my soul." (NIV) However, verses like Psalm 96:9 ("O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.") (KJV) were foreign and odd to me.

What, I wondered, is true worship?

What i realized is this: true worship is not defined by importance. True worship is defined by priority. It is a matter of the heart. If we place highest priority on who God is and live out that dedication in our everyday lives, each action will be worship. It is more than music. It is more than witnessing. It is more than tithing. Worship is submitting to God's perfection and His will and placing all our burdens on Him, trusting even when it feels foolish, loving even when it hurts. Worship is the actions, but it is the meaning behind the actions. A worship-filled lifestyle will express the "beauty of holiness" through a love for God that cannot help but seep from within into everything we do.

Why Do We Worship? 

The Purpose of Worship

We worship God because he is God. That is the only reason. He is the only God who deserves our utmost respect, love, and, yes, fear. We worship Him because he is all-knowing. We worship Him because he is perfect. But we worship God primarily because He loved us first. If you think about it, knowing and believing this one fundamental truth will cause all other forms of worship to flow easily and from the heart. The Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent Creator God loved us and loves us still, and will always love us. He will always be there and he saved us when we deserved nothing but loneliness, desperation and separation from Him. We must focus our worship - our music, our actions, and our thoughts - on the worthiness of God. 

The Promise of Worship

God is infinitely generous. Though we deserve nothing, God chooses to respond to our worship and promises to commune with us. He does not promise to make us feel good or even to lift our burdens immediately, but He promises that He will be there. Imagine, personal communion with the Creator, Redeemer. From beyond the social, beyond the metaphysical, beyond the borders of our mind, God comes, in His own time, as a response to our worship. Psalm 16:7 says "I will bless the Lord who has counseled me..." It is a circular concept, a symbiotic relationship, as it were: if we are living in submission to God's will and bless him through our lives, He will counsel and commune with His children. He sends the Holy Spirit (John 14:16) to be with us through our worship and our troubles alike. To me, this is one of the most amazing, mind-boggling concepts in Scripture. 

To say it plainly, while we are worshiping God, he is inspecting our hearts. Anything else that we expect worship to bring is null if we do not let God first access our innermost thoughts, our soul, the whole of our beings. As Delesslyn Kennebrew from Christianity Today says, our hearts must be right with God in order for true worship to be beneficial. When we worship, we are asking God to make us more and more like him and to weed out anything in us that isn't. That is the true promise of worship: because he will reveal anything that is not like Him in our lives, we can be slowly and painstakingly transformed into His likeness. 

"The other benefits that we tend to expect because we lift up our feeble hands and shout with our weak voices are worthless if our hearts are not right with God. My sisters and brothers, when we offer God our true worship, we are inviting him to inspect our hearts for anything that is not like him." ~ Delesslyn A. Kennebrew, Christianity Today 

Worship is submitting to God's perfection and His will and placing all our burdens on Him. If you are are not living a life in submission to God's will, then I invite you to make worship a non-negotiable priority in your life. Through singing, declaring, and giving, you will be able to give God the glory that he so deserves (Psalm 96:8). God promises that He will commune with you through worship, but above all, He promises to make your heart more like His. If there is anything that is worthy of emulation, it is God's heart, and though it will take a lifetime, He promises to help hone you so that you are more and more pleasing to Him.

I Hope You Know You are Useful

 

My dear friends:

In the immortal words of the Beatles- "It's been a long, cold, lonely winter." Seriously, this winter has felt longer, colder and lonelier to me than all others in my (short, relatively-speaking) life. I've been busy. I can't believe the winter is almost over and I haven't posted a single article! My humblest apologies.

When the winter drags on and seems to dump foot after foot of snow on my efforts to uplift, I begin to feel insecure. I might even being to complain. Short, dark days lead to short tempers and sicknesses and that might lead to a falling-away from God. Sometimes I can get so bogged down by the cold winter months that I forget to thank God for my blessings. After all, Thanksgiving was months ago and I took care of it all then, right? When I don't praise God for what He has given me, I can get distracted by what He hasn't.

It is a truth universally accepted among Christians that God has gifted each of us with something that can and ought to be used to benefit the church. We all have talents, great or small. Still, many of us struggle with feelings of inadequacy - the feeling that we are not good enough, that we will never be good enough, that we have not been properly equipped for the task set before us. The feeling that we are useless.

This, quite frankly, is untrue.

God made this real for me recently when I was impromptu "counseling" a younger person on her own feelings of inadequacy. Why, she asked me, did God make her so imperfect? Why did she annoy other people? Why wasn't she good enough? Why? Why? And I was forced to confront my own insecurities and acknowledge that I, too, had for some time been comparing myself to others.

But that's just it. In comparing myself to others, I had taken for granted the fact that God wants to use me as I am. As He has made me.  All the jealousy and bitterness and holding on to hurt in my life was building a wall between who I am and who I desire to be, and causing me to feel like a failure in my spiritual life. Why was I not making a difference? Because instead of realizing my own gifts and utilizing them for a higher purpose, I was forcing myself to look better in order to gain recognition for my talents. What I realized while I was talking to this girl was that my talents, my beauty, and all the other assets that God has given me are not "given to me". I don't own them. They are not mine to squander and use at will, as fodder for jealousy, to please myself or the world, or even as an outlet for emotions. They are God's.

Your words are God's. Your mind is God's. Your face is God's. Your music is God's. And so on and so on, for whatever your particular assets are. Fill in the blank. _____________ is God's. It belongs to him.

I told the girl that I was counseling that God, who is perfect, had made her in His image (Genesis 1:27), so He must have envisioned someone he could use for his purpose when he created her (Psalm 139:13). She felt that she had no assets, no talents, and no particular beauty to speak of. That does not determine worth. Upon salvation, God transforms your
life and that is what gives you worth! Not how great you play the piano or how well you deal with people or how attractive you are, or any of the other things that this world will tell you are important. If you have been so blessed with abilities and assets, it is your responsibility to use them for a higher purpose. And if not, well, you have to find something that you are good at and do that (1 Peter 4:10). But you are NOT useless. And neither am I.

I watched this kid show once, while I was babysitting my little cousins, about this bee who only wanted to be "very useful", because his mommy bee had complimented his sister bee on her helpfulness. "Being useful" was his only goal, so he went around trying to find jobs which he would be good at, but he kept messing them up. Like: this little bee went to help the mailman put a letter in the mailbox and accidentally caused him to spill the letters all over the place. I think that some people feel that way - they see others who have different gifts and they go around trying to find their own niche without success, eventually becoming discouraged because they do not have what others do. They don't feel "very useful". But they are comparing themselves too much. All they can see is what they don't have. But what we haven't been given shouldn't concern us. It does not matter what our shortcomings are - God still desires to use us. He desires to use us in spite of ourselves (Psalm 71:20).

The body of Christ can't function if all we focus on is ourselves, nursing jealousy, bitterness, and a prideful spirit. In order to be useful, I first have to surrender to him. I have to realize that I am not my own. This simple truth is something that I have struggled with so much. So how can we combat this winter slump?

1. REWIND YOUR LIFE

Take a moment and forget about what you don't have. Just don't think about it. Instead, focus on one thing that you think you are good at - being kind, encouraging through music, defending your faith, writing - and rewind your life. How far has God brought you with that particular talent in the last five years? Ten years? Twenty? How has God used it to change your life or to impact others lives around you?  Nothing God ever does is pointless, including giving you whatever special talent you have.

2. HAVE DEVOES

It sounds so stereotypically Christian: read your Bible, kids! It makes life better! And the truth it, it doesn't make life better, not really. It doesn't promise happiness to Christians - in fact, It says we will be mistreated (John 16:1-4). But God's Word DOES have power! Not only does a daily dose of Scripture make one feel closer to God, but it shows what God wants us to be doing with our life, whether that means taking a passage straight like it says or modeling a situation off of a Bible hero or heroine. Not to mention the impact of prayer! I have personally found that even when God says no to whatever road I wanted to walk, he will show me a more meaningful path to take. Just the other day, I prayed for our youth group retreat to be the "best ever" because it was going to be my last one. Instead of answering that prayer the way I wanted it to be answered - by giving me a super fun awesome weekend - God decided to show me some things about Himself and myself that I never knew. The weekend turned out to be very draining for me. But I have to say, it was the "best ever." Having devotions daily (including a time of prayer) by yourself, with friends, with family or with a mentor is one of the best ways to get psyched up about how you fit in to the body of Christ.


3. USE YOUR GIFTS

They say practice makes perfect. Without ever actually using your gift for God's glory, how can one expect to gain any reward? I was using my gifts, all right - but only to make myself feel good, look good, and seem, well, good. The fact is that no matter how good we look in this life, it does not matter. You can be the most famous, most beautiful singer on Broadway, or you can be the best soccer player and be the envy of every teenage boy in Britain, or you can write like Emily Bronte and Ernest Hemingway and Mark Twain combined, but if your heart is not in the right place, you can't make a dent. You can't. And you won't. Using your gifts is the last step to feeling useful because if you don't take a step back and reevaluate what God has done for you, and if you don't get back into a daily habit of communion with God, your heart will most likely be stuck in that winter slump and you won't be of use to anyone, not really. A lasting impact is not something we should strive for in this life - we should strive to make an impact in the next.

So, dear friends, if you ever feel spiritually useless, remember that God does not make pointless things. Every jar has value and a purpose to him, no matter how unattractive it may seem on the outside. If we can just remember to rewind our lives to remember what God has done for us, get back into the habit of daily devotions and an active prayer life, and use our talents to bring glory to God and be a light to bring others to the knowledge of Christ, we will be able to "make a dent" in our society and in our world, not only in this life, but in the next as well.