What does it mean to own who you are, to allow God to perform the alchemical process on… you? Does it mean that God spins your hay into gold? Are you, in fact, hay? Do you wish you were gold? Or is God’s alchemy something else entirely? Ineffable, but in the ballpark of, ‘God sees something in you that you yearn for but cannot see in yourself?’

We could argue self-worth until the cows come home, but the bare and painful truth is that some of us really can’t stand ourselves. And some others of us wouldn’t go quite that far – but we know inside we’re not good enough, or we can’t stand our bodies/jobs/luck/pick something. It is very easy to dwell in the place that hurts – I’m not sure why, but it seems awfully easy to do. But God is less interested in the way sin which we fail to love ourselves and much, I think, more interested in the thing that dwells beneath that – the little piece of perfection. But wait! Not perfection like that. Not as in exact, finished, unachievable, and possibly even mocking you. Perfect as in handed-to-you-lovliness, a bliss you didn’t make but are free to enjoy.

And that is freedom.

And so here is one of the small bits of stuff that prompted this blogpost from the Gathering of Leaders Conference I just attended in Chicago. It’s my not-necessarily-liberal interpretation of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 7, verses 20-24.

I don’t care who you think you are. You are useful to God, just as you are. God wants you to use every scrap of everything you can, not only to learn and grow in the stature of Christ, but also to help secure the freedom of your brothers and sisters.

Stop running away from who you are. God can use you.

*This is part of a little blog series on Freedom, Creativity & Accountability.