"There Is Nothing Wrong With You"

      It's Christmas Eve as I write this, and in the spririt of he Holiday Season the warm fuzzy thoughts of peace and good will toward men race through my head.  The older I get the closer I come to the realization of the potential we all have to spread a little love and cheer.  Most people in this broken world need to know that they are loved.  Regardless of whatever 'issues' they may have.  There are those that also believe the opposite.  They're perfect and they don't have any issues, which is a huge issue in itself that they aren't even aware of.  This is a selfish way of thinking.  I would know, as I am a master of excuses.  Through excuses I have the ability to create the momentum of casting blame on others.  Someone caused hurt in my life which made me 'act' in a particular way.  Therefore I'm innocent AND I'm the vicitim.  I use to think this way until I realized that there is NOTHING wrong with me, at all.  I'm by no means perfect and I can improve in several areas of my life.  I still have issues, insecurities, things I wish could be different.  Don't you?  Yet, even in these issues we all, is there anything really 'wrong'?  In fact, I would go as far as saying the defects of my life are just right.  They mean something, and I can use them for some type of good. 

Some would even go as far as saying that they 'deserve' better.  Wealth and money may be the most desired object, I'm sure of it.  Everyone wants more money, wouldn't you agree?  There's nothing terribly wrong with having dreams of financial prosperity.  Although the love of money is the root of all evil, it's still okay to 'like' it and enjoy the money you have.  I'm not ashamed to like money.  More is nice too.  Yet, if I lost the control of that like and it becomes more of a love, or an obsession I'm on a crash course with discontentment.  The people that constantly want more and say they 'deserve' a raise, or they 'deserve' to win that million dollar lottery seem very discontent to what they already have.  If they did win the lottery, if all of their bills were paid, if they were wealthy beyond reason it their 'I want more' attitude is evident that they still wouldn't be happy.  They'd have something else to complain about. 

So here's the point.  There's nothing wrong with you.  There's nothing wrong with your life.  Some parts might suck, and you might want more every now and then.  You feel as though you're empty until it's filled with that one thing.  Whether it be more money, a rich boyfriend or girlfriend, fancy clothes, a nice car, etc etc .  However, you'll never get what you want until you're content with what you have. 

Hate to get cliche, or weird, but there's more truth to 'Jesus loves you' then you tend to believe.  Just because some people are pissed off at the world doesn't necessarily mean God is pissed off at them.  Because He's not.  God can't deny Himself and being made in His image, He can't deny you.  It's not in His nature.  When you REALIZE how real He is and how much He loves you then that discontentment sizzles.  Many churches claim God is mad at you and the only way for Him to stop being mad at you is to believe in Jesus.  Until then, God is going to make your life a living Hell.  Just to clear things up just believing in Jesus hardly means a difference.  Even the devil believes in Jesus.  Second: Some people tend to stereotype God as an old man sitting on a cloud, ready to throw a lightening bolt at you everytime you make a bad choice.  Controlling you and making your life hell.  Here's a dose of reality.  God isn't making your life a living Hell, you are.  Take this as a potential mind shift.  When you realize how awesome God is, you realize how awesome you are because you're a reflection of Him.  

PSALM 23 says, "The Lord is my shephard, I lack nothing."  First it identifies who God is as a sheppard.  Feeing you, protecting you, keeping you from harm.  The outstanding momentum to the realization of the 'lack nothing' mentality'.  If everyone had this 'lack nothing' mentality then this world wouldn't be so broken.   If abusive husbands, communist leaders, drug lords, rapists, crooked politicians.....if they all realized that they lacked nothing, what would this world be like?  Can you imagine the chain of events that would happen if the 'lack nothing' mentality was as contagious as the common cold?  The changes that could be made.  We can only dream of such a perfect world.  

This is the meaning of Christmas.  The Lord is our Sheppard, we lack nothing.  It's about an out of this world King that brought Himself to our level of existence in this life from the next.  Not just to suffer, not just to prove who the Father is, .  I'm not going to promise you that there aren't things about your life that don't suck.  I'm not going to paint a pretty little picture about issues that you might be struggling with and candy coat it with 'it's going to be okay'.  Yet, just because life sucks sometimes doesn't necessarily mean you have to suck all the time.  You lack nothing.  When you realize that, you gain everything.  The lack nothing menatlity doesn't make your problems go away, but they make them SO much easier to deal with.

All in all, this world is becoming more and more depressed.  The root of the situation is the decline of self-worth.  Families are being broken, suicide rates continue to rise, depression is common place.  At the same time the idea of God, faith, and religion is becoming less appealing.  I wonder if there is any direct correlation?  I'll definitely continue to write on that subject later.  Until then, if you're feeling like you aren't qualified to do anything with your life stop comparing yourself to the self-righteous and start comparing yourself to Biblical characters.  Check this out:

"Jacob cheated, Peter had a temper, Noah got drunk, Jonah ran from God, Paul committed murder, Gideon was insecure, Miriam gossiped, Martha worried, Thomas doubted, Sara was impatient, Elijah was moody, Moses stuttered, Zacchaeus was short, Abraham was old, and Lazarus was dead.

God doesn't choose the qualified.  He qualifies the chosen.  Don't be so hard on yourself, you don't lack anything.  Everything is as it should be.  Serving it's own purpose in this world.   MERRY CHRISTMAS.