Becoming more “you-ier”

I have a ton of books that I want or need to be reading, which is a very cool problem to have if you’re a reader. Tuesday evening I picked up a digital book that was sent to me by the people at Neue Resources. The book is entitled The Me I Want To Be. Honestly, when I got th

e book I wasn’t that impressed. I mean the whole digital book is cool, but really do I want to read a self-help book? I’m not a fan of that style of writing and the books like it that I’ve read always make me feel “less” somehow. But this book is written by John Ortberg and I really respect this guys unique perspective on life and ministry.

So, I start reading it and I run into this quote: “Some people think that if they seek to grow spiritually they will have to become someone else. But God won’t discard your raw material. He redirects it.” I know I’ve both been told and probably have shared, that God loves you but He wants you to change. It’s kinda has the feeling that we have to get our acts together before God really will let us hang out together. My kids went slip-n-sliding this weekend and they were covered in mud. Then they wanted to come and give me a hug! I said, no thanks! I told them I loved them but I’d wait till they were cleaned off. Well, sometimes it feels that my muddiness is going to forever be caked on me and God will love me from a distance.

Ortberg talks about Paul’s conversion as an example. He says, prior to conversion Paul was a “brilliant, passionate zealot who persecuted people. Afterward, he was a brilliant, passionate zealot who sacrificed himself for people.” That’s the change that God is looking for – not an overhaul, but a redirection. I realize humanity is flawed and marked with the effects of sin, but we still carry the Image of God in our very being – even the absolute worst of us. Our change into the image of Christ isn’t to start donning robes and sandals and walk around saying mystical things (at least not all of us). Our change is to be more YOU. Ortberg continues, “You become more that person God had in mind when he thought you up. You don’t just become more holier. You become You-ier.”

Becoming You-ier is the freedom that we can come to God muddied up from top to toes and know that this Dad will still hug and hold us! God’s love for us reaches way beyond our flaws and it knows the YOU/ME that we were designed to be. It’s true God loves us where we are but God isn’t content to let us stay there, but it’s not true in a “clean yourself up” or “you’re not quite good enough” kind of way. It is true when we realize that there is way more to our existence than what we/I so often settle for. God wants change not because we’re gross, but because we so much more. He’s created us with a uniqueness that we are one-of-a-kind and becoming “you-ier” is the change that release us to be even more.

I hope that I can become more Me-ier this week. I hope you can become more “you-ier” too. As sad as I am that my journey with Bilbo has come to a close, I realize that this journey is so much more epic than any journey to the Lone Mountain. It’s also a journey that can’t leave me deflated. Allowing the flow of God’s love to continually wash off the mud so that I can be truly ME is something that is a life-long joy-filled journey.

One more thing from Ortberg, at the end of the first chapter, he asks one question: “How is your spiritual life going?” I could spend days on that question. We hear it a LOT in churchy circles. It’s also got a false split inbred into the question. Our Spiritual Life is not separate from our “other” life. We are connected beings and when we split them it’s easy to think that God can’t love us with our mud. Our spiritual, physical, emotional sides are joined into one whole. So maybe a better question isn’t how is your spiritual life, but how is it with your soul? Is your soul being nurtured, challenged, exercised to allow the Holy Spirit more access? Here’s two questions a friend of Ortberg’s uses to determine his soul health:

• Am I growing more easily discouraged these days?

• Am I growing more easily irritated these days?

Two good questions to ask as we walk in to becoming more of who we were designed to be? I guess that means it’s time to start acting more “You-ier”.