Am I Awesome?
I was in the grocery store freezer section a while back and saw a woman wearing the most fabulous t-shirt. Are you also a sucker for shirts with a message like me? I find them fascinating on so many different levels because they give a sneak peak inside the mind of the person in front of you. We pass so many strangers each day and make assumptions about them based in truth and fiction. But, a shirt or a piece of jewelry can fill in some details about what they think is important helping us understand them a little better.
Anyway. On this particular ice cream run, I saw this woman sporting a shirt I had never seen before. It was white with a silk screened rectangle in the top right where a name tag would be. In fact, it was a picture of a name tag complete with the “Hello, my name is…” at the top. In handwriting script, just below the greeting, it read: Awesome. How great is that? Hello, my name is Awesome!
Thinking about how we introduce ourselves to others, what we reveal in the first few seconds after we meet someone for the first time, I was wondering what I would put on my name tag. Would I have the guts to say my name is Awesome? Or would I be more tempted to write something else? Something closer to: I’m So Busy.
photo courtesy Unsplash @jontyson
Choosing Love- Biting My Tongue
The words we wear on our shirts or the symbols on our jewelry give others a glimpse into what we believe is important and where our minds are focused. On Sunday, I wore my Astros sweater to Mass. In a way, wearing this sweater was an invitation for someone to speak to me because it was safe to assume I like the Astros and am excited about their progress this season. It opened the door for a few short conversations about the World Series with people I ordinarily would not have spoken to on my way to my car.
What we are wearing can also save us from embarrassing ourselves. Another day, I was particularly short tempered due to travel snafus. I was forced to gate-check my carry-on bag and I was about at my wit’s end. I questioned the wisdom of traveling while wearing a shirt with Choose Love emblazoned across the chest. If I had been wearing just about any other thing that day I would have told the gate attendant what I was really thinking. Instead, I took my own advice, chose love, and started to pray asking God to silence my racing thoughts.
What if I allowed God to fill in my name tag?
As baptized daughters of God, we know that He longs for us to Abide with Him. Part of Abiding with Him is spending time with Him, reading His Word, and looking for His presence throughout the day in other people and nature. He created you with a magnificence which is sparked in time spent with Him. If He filled in your name tag He would write words like: precious, powerful, wise, compassionate, and loved. He wants to convince you of these truths.
photo courtesy Unsplash @jhc
Busy Fractures our Focus
Sometimes, we forget the enormity of His love for us and allow the busy of the day to crowd out the time we would planned to set aside for resting with Jesus. Our attention is fractured, divided in a hundred different places. Convinced that time in prayer does not matter as much as all the other things on our to-do list, we put prayer off for later in the day. We allow our worries to divide our hearts and our minds stifling our desire to savor time reading the Psalms and remembering that God is our Rock and our Redeemer. The end of the day arrives, as we scroll through social media worn out from the onslaught of the world, and we promise ourselves that tomorrow we will try again.
We are conditioned by the pace of modern life to run from one activity to another. Filling in our name tag each morning we might write BUSY instead of identifying ourselves as LOVED. Do you privately believe that your level of busyness indicates your personal success? Have you bought into the lie that you only matter if your calendar, bank account, and inbox are full?
Please know this: You are loved regardless of the number of activities on your calendar. You are seen by God no matter the number of emails waiting to be answered. You are a treasure irrespective of the size of your bank account.
Today, ponder what you want to write on your name tag to remind yourself that you are already a daughter of the King. Your connection with Him, your most valuable asset, is nurtured in time set aside for conversation with Him. This time allows us to savor His presence and rest in His unfailing love.
Let’s erase busy from our daily vocabulary. There is another B word that you should write in Sharpie on your name tag: Beloved. Abide. Be. Loved.
What are you going to write?