Great performances....
Many of us spend our lives performing...no, not in front grand audiences or in Carnegie Hall, or Radio City Hall...but in front of ourselves, acquaintances, our family, pastors, or friends...trying so hard to be,loved, accepted, cared for, cherished, some kind of accolades for being a person of worth...
But, our audiences are just as needy for an audience as we are...they are performing, too, for the same reasons...and some cannot even "clap" at our performances or don't know they "need" to...
"Performances", a to do list of list, expectations of ourselves and others are heavy burdens we carry...we can never be "good" enough....some of us struggle with this on a daily basis all of our lives...only to find out that we will never have an applauding audience...and then we beat ourselves more, practice more, perform more...to gain the acceptance we so desperately desire from the ones we want to please.....
Growing up, I thought one of my friends was more cared for because she sang so well. She thought I was more loved because of my grades...as adults we talked about this with our parents....our parents were shocked, never knowing that we could even feel this way...we both had put false "performance" expectations on ourselves...
Attending a legalistic church was demoralizing because the "to do list" was never ending...
Growing up in a "Barbie " generation was futile. I could never look like that..I felt like an Amazon woman next to my extended family...who are shorter and smaller than I.....I never had perfect hair, the "perfect" body, or acted perfectly ...whatever "perfect" meant...
When I think about the encounters that Jesus had with disciples, individuals, crowds, He didn't choose the "perfect" people or events...he healed the lepers along the road, the blind man, the adulteress....he held children, comforted parents, calmed the storm and so much more...he wasn't going around looking for the perfect....he came to heal the sick, share of good news of His redemptive love to the needy, of which we all are...
We can never get it all right, we can never perform perfectly, we can never meet all of our expectations or those of others, but we can know that we are loved unconditionally by the Creator of the Universe and in the end that is the most important ...He comes simply to each of us asking that we put our faith in His perfection, His saving favor, His love, His light...He is after all, God...we don't have to "clean" up our act to gain His acceptance, he just wants us to come to Him in Faith, believing who he says He is...
Thank YOU, God...I know I can never measure up to "man's" expectations...but I know that You love me for who I am...You came for me and all who are like me, needy and not perfect...needing your eternal love...
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
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