Visible!

With a small group of students from the College of Fine Arts and our lecturer we are visiting an extensive castle complex with long hallways, castle chapel, restaurant and many other rooms. After a short restroom break, I notice that no one from my group is to be seen anymore and I go in search of them. After some time I discover them again. Their comment: We knew someone was missing, but we just couldn’t figure out who was missing!

This statement shocked me and kept me thinking for a quite a while. I recognized a pattern of behavior (I was almost 50 years old!) that I didn’t like at all. I had gotten into the habit of being inconspicuous, of fitting in, of not expressing my opinion. Oh my! I made myself “invisible”, so to speak!

I discovered two reasons:
I thought my opinion was not important and was afraid of being criticized.

Growing up I was short, petite and cute with blonde curls and also a girl. No one asked me much about my opinion and if I expressed it, it was not really taken seriously. And so I kept it to myself, dismissed it as irrelevant – and thus did not practice formulating and expressing it.
There was also this fear of exposing myself and showing myself with everything I have – good and bad. My mindset was, “Being visible is dangerous and troublesome!” I wanted to avoid being judged and criticized. Those two mindsets were not a good combination.

What does God say about this?
He created you and me, we are wonderful works from his hand. There are divine reasons why he created us the way we are – we don’t know these reasons and have quite a few doubts about us as a “masterpiece”. And yet God sticks to his opinion and loves us with all our gifts and talents – and yes, even with our humanly trained shortcomings. He never questions your worth or mine.

God created me as “Angie” with the potential to have an impact in the world! So my opinion is important. This is also valid for you and for everyone in the world!
Besides, I should not have fear of man, but reverence for God. I can trust Him to go through life with me and to guide me wonderfully in accepting the responsibility that He places before me.

When, with God’s help, the problem (those false beliefs in my head) is identified, then I can work on it. I can speak God’s truth out loud on a regular basis, and most importantly, I can practice it in my daily life. I can see that I am making progress step by step and that it’s even fun. It’s nice to see how my involvement has an impact over time!

God has made us what we are. He has created us in Christ Jesus to live lives filled with good works that he has prepared for us to do. Eph 2,10

God gives me tasks that fit perfectly with my gifts and talents. And he wants me to take responsibility for contributing to the world and my surroundings. This can and will attract criticism from people. But I can also trust God to stand by me when criticism is expressed. It’s okay for people to see me and judge or even condemn me. But I should only care about criticism from my closest, trusted friends – I can safely ignore criticism from other people.

Very important for my personal well-being and peace is to be close to God and realize how well he thinks of me and how much he loves me. Then I understand that my opinion is relevant and can speak it out loud and stand by it.
Most importantly, I can be much more present and “visible”; I can actively and committedly contribute my part to society, because I know that my opinion and what I do are relevant and important. Being visible and committed is what really spices up life!

This is also true for you! God is there for you and helps you to recognize and eliminate false beliefs. Then your gifts and talents will really unfold; what you do will have an effect and you will be visible for God’s kingdom.