No Permission Needed.

A few weeks ago in youth group Pastor Stephen said something that God has just been building on in my heart for you. Here's what he said: 

"God made you just the way you are so that He can use you just the way He made you!" 

Isn't that an awesome statement? God made YOU just the way YOU are so that He can use you just the way He made you! What am I getting at here? Let me be real...as I've gotten older I've really begun apologizing for the way God has made me. Do you do this too? I don't always apologize with words. Sometimes it's my hesitation to just be me, my sheepish look when someone makes a remark about my personality, or my quick action to shoot down any compliment coming my way that does the apologizing for me. I know that I'm different guys. I know that I'm sillier than most. I know that my ability to still be filled with wonder at everything around me is rare. I know that I laugh too loud and cry real easy and wear my expressions right on my face for everyone to see. And I know that all those things were intricately woven into my DNA by a God who loves me and you enough to create us with exactly what we need to survive this world and to reach it. Those things that you think are weird about me work really well at breaking the ice so that I can show Jesus to young people and I know this and I'm grateful for it. None of that changes the fact that I still stand here sometimes and desperately seek permission to be who I am. Do you get what I'm saying or am I just babbling? That's another thing...I babble. Sometimes I get too excited and talk too fast. It's one of my things.  

What I'm saying is...Who are you? What's your things? I'm talking about the you that you know that God put together and the things He added for a purpose. And why in the world are you apologizing for it? Let me be clear...if you're a meanie or rude or harsh and you pass that off as "that's just how I'm made" then I think you should apologize. That's not how God made you. That's how this crazy world has built a wall around all the amazing things that God put there. Run to Jesus and let Him crash those walls down. The world is desperate for the God parts of you! It needs you to be EVERYTHING God made you!  

And you don't need permission from anyone to be that. When He fearfully and wonderfully made you...He built the permission to be you right in! You came with permission! No apologies needed. Go be you! 

Rooting for you, 

Keri