Jesus is my Redeemer

"But is Jesus my therapist or my Redeemer? If he is my therapist, then he meets my needs as I define them. If he is my Redeemer, he defines my true needs and addresses them in ways far more glorious than I could have anticipated.
If Jesus is my therapist, he is the One who comes to affirm me. Instead of trying to love ourselves, we think about how much Jesus loves us. This approach is deceptive because it latches onto a very powerful aspect of the gospel: God does shower his love upon us in Christ! Everyone who reads the Bible knows this. But this approach subtly turns Jesus into the One who meets my needs and fills my emptiness--as I define them. It turns God's love into something that only serves me. Repentance for our rebellion and sin against God is minimized or even ignored while God's love for us is maximized. We turn Jesus into someone whose goal in life is to make us feel good about ourselves."

How People Change Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp

The problem of isms

"When the gospel is reduced to a catalog of isms where I choose the one most attractive and comfortable for me, I can participate extensively in Christianity without much personal sacrifice, and with my self, unchallenged, at the center of it all."

Examples: Formalism, Legalism, Mysticism, Activism, Biblicism, "Pyschologyism," "Socialism"

"These isms also appeal to our environmentalism. We tend to believe that the sin that surrounds us is more dangerous than the sin that resides inside us. This is why it is hard for a husband to understand that he can't blame his coldness on his wife, more can the wife blame her bitterness on her husband, more can their child blame his rebellion on his parents' failures."

How People Change Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp

Effects of Our Identity in Christ

"Without an awareness of Christ's presence, we tend to live anxiously. We avoid hard things and are easily overwhelmed. But a clear sense of identity and provision gives us hope and courage to face the struggles and temptations that come our way."

How People Change Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp

"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence."(2 Peter 1:3, ESV)

Identity

"[E]ach of us lives out of some sense of identity, and our gospel identity amnesia will always lead to some form of identity replacement. That is, if who I am in Christ does not shape the way I think about myself and the things I face, then I will live out of some other identity.
Often in our blindness, we take on our problems as identities."

How People Change Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp

Use of Talents

The Parable of the Talents
14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that placethere will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Something new struck me about this parable today. The master gives out the talents, giving more to those who have the ability to use them, and expects them to use them. However, what suddenly came into my mind, was that the master doesn't tell the servants what to do with their talents. Yes, he expects the servants to use them, develop them in some way, and show a profit at the end, but he doesn't tell them how. There's a wide open door here, which really opens up a lot of possibilities for how we view our students and their gifts.

Using your gifts and talents is not necessarily only about sharing them with others, for example, having a gift for things musical. Just because you have a lot of talent for piano or singing or violin or. . . doesn't mean that this must be the focus of your life. You may have other talents that also need development, and your music may be one of the ways you learn the various skills that will benefit you in these other areas as well. Just because you have a lot of talent in one area or another, doesn't mean you must spend your life on it. That might mean stunting the growth of other talent areas in your life.

The unworthy servant doesn't do anything with his--doesn't even put it in the bank so it collects interest (develop it in a minor way--taking piano lessons, for example) and this is why he is cast out. It's the fact that he didn't do anything with it at all that is the problem. Not using what you have been given, but squandering it or hiding it in the ground is the sin here. Our talents are gifts from God--His property, loaned to us until His return--and it is our responsibility to steward and develop them for His glory. He has given us the talent, but how we develop it is primarily left up to us--as long as we are developing them in God-honouring and glorifying ways, we are doing His will.

Hiding behind Masks

Behind my hands

my face lurks

tentative, scared, scarred.

Laughter is its shield

quivering in the silence,

every nerve jangling, shaking.

True expression is dangerous;

it is too real, too exposing,

too naked me:

one should never be without clothes (it's unnatural).

Childhood freedom?

Gone with every don't and shouldn't.

I have my faces

each used on different occasions,

some serving more than one purpose:

Not all truth.

I confess that I have a problem with perfectionism. I never really realized/admitted it until just recently.

I am loathe to put anything out into the world that is not perfectly crafted and complete. I'd rather abandon something if I can't do it right. I'd rather not even try if I'm just going to fail. If I'm going to put something out there, I'm definitely not going to leave holes for people to poke their fingers into, places where they can poke and prod at my self-worth.

That is what perfectionism is about a lot of the time. It's about maintaining my armour, keeping up the facade, wearing the "everything is okay" mask. Don't show weakness. Don't give an opportunity for people to hurt you, the real you, the one you hide behind the perfectionism. Our outside self is so carefully crafted. If we don't find this out in childhood, we find out soon afterwards. It only takes one bad experience to start us hiding.

It has taken me a long time to get to the point where I am willing to take risks with my self. When I enter into a relationship, it's a risk. When I publish a blog post, it's a risk. When I share something important to me, it's a risk. And all these risks affect my self-confidence, self-worth, self-acceptance. They shouldn't make such a difference, but they do. My first impulse is always to hide. I'll hide behind a mask of self-confidence if I don't have anything else. The problem is, if that mask is challenged, it will become harder and harder to maintain the facade. Behind it, I get more and more paranoid about keeping the mask intact. But you can't really live fully behind the mask. Eventually it will crack and crumble, or else you will. . .

Fake it till you make it doesn't really work in the long term, not if involves denial of self and identity. And who then am I apart from these masks I hide behind?