So Alive Inside!

Issue 4

Claiming Your Right To Be You

Happy New Year everyone! Ah, yes, 2006! It has a nice ring to it don't you think?! Hope it's your best year yet!!

Recently, I dropped by a local hair salon for a haircut. Since I had a bit of a wait before my appointment and I didn't feel like browsing a magazine, I decided to scout out a potential prospect to analyze philosophically and psychologically while I waited. It didn't take long to find my subject.

Seated against a large window was a little bleach blond boy, who looked to be about four years old. My gaze locked on him as I secretly watched every move he made. He was just going about his business...... little did he know that he would become the subject of my January newsletter.

My brain was quite stimulated, busy and fascinated watching this little boy. He was waiting for his mom and making the most of every minute.

He started out sitting up against the window happily thumbing through a book. Next, he got down and playfully went to inspect the door. It was dark out, so he could see his reflection quite clearly in the glass. He was ecstatic and completely blown away that an image of himself was staring back at him. The smile on his face extended from ear to ear as he gestured to himself in the glass.

Next, he made his way over to the front counter where he spotted an insignificant detail on the decor. He proceeded to treat it like it was his biggest discovery ever! His imagination led him through an entire play that he wrote, produced, and acted out right there with the insignificant speck as his main character.

The clerk at the front counter eventually saw him there and bent down to offer him a cute finger puppet to take home. He was completely elated at the thought of making one of the colorful creatures his own. He chose one and right away got to work befriending it. He waltzed through the waiting room in his own world, acting out his imagination with his new finger puppet.

Watching this little boy was like watching a teaching video on freedom. He was completely free. It was nothing for him to do whatever fun or interesting thing popped into his mind. Everything was fascinating to him. He played around completely oblivious to the fact that people were watching him. He was thoroughly enjoying himself just being a child.

As children of God, we have a blood bought right to be as free as that little boy. Just as he expressed himself fully, so too we can express ourselves fully every day. In the whole time the boy was playing, he was never interrupted by the fear of what others might think of him. That didn't even cross his mind, and it shouldn't cross ours either. It's completely futile, especially, when we contemplate the price that was paid for our freedom.

In 1994, Nelson Mandela in his inaugural speech said "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant?" Who are you not to be? You are a child of God...we were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us."

How absolutely true! That little boy was expressing the glory of God just by being what he was, a child. When we express ourselves as children of God, we embrace our freedom, live fully and glorify God in the process. God intended us to be as free as that little boy in the waiting room. Fear should never have the upper hand when it comes to self-expression.

Don't worry, you don't have to press your nose up against a window or dance with your reflection to be a child of God. Just expressing your talents, gifts; who you truly are is enough to glorify God and live life truly alive!