significance, security, acceptance

Those were three themes we talked about on Saturday morning during our weekend retreat.  Thanks to Don for his insight into these three things.  A few thoughts:

What tend to search for significance, acceptance and security.  At the heart of the matter is recognizing who we are in Christ - "you are my beloved, in whom I am well pleased."  Sometimes we hear competing voices - the voices which tell us that our future is insecure, our personhood is insignificant, and that we are not accepted unless we...   And then the competing voices begin to fill in the blank.  We try to fill the voids of significance, acceptance and security with so much 'stuff'. 

There is another voice - sometimes it is barely audible to us over the din and crash of the competing voices.  It is the voice of the Father who says to us - "You also are my beloved, in whom I am well pleased".  Because of Jesus, and through Jesus, we become like Jesus.  Not only in our outward actions, but also in the attitudes of our hearts.  One of those attitudes is our view of ourselves.  We find the fulfillment of those three things in our relationship with God.  God intends for us to have a confidence that comes from knowing and trusting that He is able to give us those things.  We are significant in His sight, we are accepted through Jesus, and we have a security which is not threatened by the seeming endless changes and variations of our lives.

Be present O merciful God, and protect us through the silent hours of this night, so that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this fleeting world, may repose upon thy eternal changelessness, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Order for Compline, Book of Common Prayer

Comments

[Dudley-guenette]

I have to say, I am still trying to work through what happened this weekend at the retreat, and all those questions that came from this weekend, and probably will for quite some time.

I really like the notion of how we try to fill the voids with "stuff" because it reminds me that it is all up to us. It would be easier to blame our family, peers, or strangers on the street for filling those voids within us, but ultimately, we have that choice.

I think it's hard though because if you take the family, they are something tangible - they have been there for us for 21 years and what they have to say is consequently really, really, really important to what we decide to do, to say, to be. It is like trying to tell a 6yr old that their grade one teacher is wrong about something. As far as the 6yr old is concerned, "Mrs. Smith knows everything!"

Along the lines of looking to divine things rather than earthly things, as a youth struggling to keep my ears tuned to the Gospel message, my eyes on the foot of the cross and my heart turned steadfastly to my faith and relationship with God, it is often extremely difficult to block out those external notions of being significant, secure, and appointed.

Especially when I am beginning to get this feeling that God's will in my life (and every ounce of joy that comes with trusting and following that) is insanely different than what my parents or family's will for my life would be!

[joseph]

angela - you are right - it does take some time to digest all the stuff we covered, and I'm hoping that as I jot down a few of our thoughts, it might become clearer. And I think it is so true that we experience joy in God's will - something that 'the world' will never tell us. Like GK Chesterton talked about joy as the great secret of the Christian...