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Misjudging Deficiency

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So let this love be like a fire
Let our life be like a flame
Fill our souls with Your desire
Let our passion bring You fame*

I recently took a spiritual gifts test through my church. I wasn’t caught off guard by my strengths, but I was pleasantly surprised to see a few past low-scoring areas move up a little bit. Honestly speaking though, there were still some areas that were just plain low..pretty deficient actually.

I literally came up with the lowest possible number on Worship. And really, it’s because I don’t have a lick of natural inclination, talent, or skill when it comes to musical expression. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t still be a “Worshipper.”

We all have a tendency to let our natural bent define us.  Does that mean that we can’t excel as well in the areas where we naturally fall short though? I know the Lord delights in my gifts, but is He bummed out about me in the areas that I’m not dominating in some spiritual awesomeness?

Recently, I was at a sandwich shop picking up lunch with my kids. The guy behind the counter making our lunch had a black eye patch covering one of his eyes. It looked just like a pirate patch. I noticed it and was inwardly cringing as my 2 year old would not take his eyes off of this man. I was terrified by the possibility of what he might say.

And then he pointed. With a chubby innocent finger, he pointed straight at the man and said, “Cool hair. Cool hair Mommy.”

The knot in my throat loosened as I sighed relief and noted that indeed, this man had a head full of really awesome looking dreadlocks.

In that moment, I heard the Lord clearly say, “You may think I’m taking note of your shortcomings when I look at you….but really I’m admiring the things I love about you. I am delighting in you, and so often you think I’m staring and picking you apart.  I don’t misjudge you my love, it is you who are misjudging me.”

Why do we worry that the Lord would focus on our deficiencies? Or even more, that those areas of shortcoming would disqualify us from any service of Him?! That I’m not “gifted” in an area, or that I fall short isn’t a hall-pass to be sedentary. It’s like we think that we have to be fit to even join the gym…that our skills and life have to be in order to serve in certain capacities.

Yet…YET, I hear the Great Qualifier say to me…to us, “My sweet ones, I delight in you. I don’t notice that you can’t sing…I see the worshipper inside of your heart. So come, and worship…I delight in all of YOU.”

Let us allow our passion for Him to bring fame to his name. Let us rely on the wonder of Him to fan the flame of Christ’s work in our lives…not any ability of our own to excel in certain giftedness. “Every good and perfect gift is from above” anyhow.

Let’s let our lives receive the gifts… only to point back upwards to Him. And let us NOT allow that upward gaze to stray back earthward onto what we do or don’t do well. All to His glory….ALL to His glory.

Our natural ability cannot define our response to Him. I don’t have to lead worship, to be a worshipper. He sees the beauty in each of us, and even in our weaknesses, HE makes us strong.  He doesn’t notice our eye patch my friends, He’s admiring our cool hair.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. – 2 Cor 2:9-11

*Song credit – Jesus Culture “Burning Ones”,  Lenny Kravitz Photo Credit: Photorazzi, Flame Photo Credit – Courageous Loving Heart

 

Comments

  1. What a great post!  Thank you, Logan, for making us realize how our Father truly sees us.  What an uplifting post…perfect for a Monday morning!

    • Thanks Diane!  So often we catch ourselves believing the lie that we’re not good enough…and without Him, we do fall short….but lets not forget that when He looks at His children, He sees the redemptive and perfect blood of Jesus covering all of our shortcomings!

      • I love the last line of your reply to Diane.  Thank you.  I am a delighter of lovely phrasing.  I doesn’t mean, though, that I am not amazed at the beautiful post.  I can’t begin to comment on them for I am in awe.  I fell silent every time I come to a blog (all of them led by Diane).  I know it would spell-bind me, but I think that is an understatement too.  So I just stay quiet, just sink your words in and think again, and again of the giver of gifts.  I know right at the first sentence of the book of John, that God is a lover of amazing words.  In fact He inspired John to call His firstborn “The Word,” who became flesh and dwelt among us.

        The reading made me feel ashamed of making my shortcoming in Musical expressions, as you aptly said, bigger than it really is-from the author of lies.  I worship deeply, I sing whole-heartedly, if not voicingly!  And I made the voice an adverb.  Gee, you really, are one who evokes writers in one’s self.

  3. Loved reading this encouragement and great reminder this morning! Its always so amazing how God speaks to us through circumstances to tell us who He really is and who we really are.

    • Yes it is.  And the truth is…He’s always speaking…but are we listening?  It’s my desire to tune my ear to Him so much that it’s like a constant chatter of heaven invading my head and heart!

  4. Logan.  This was so perfect for me today and every day.  Thank you!  I can’t wait to see more! 

  5. Wonderful words of encouragement. Thank you…so often we  don’t see ourselves the way ‘God’ sees us and if we could only grasp how deep, how wide, how intensely he LOVES us we would be on our knees.

  6. I felt like I was with you in that lunch place 🙂 This is a well written reminder how man looks on outward appearance but God looks at the heart. Thank you for this reminding us that It is so freeing when we just ‘be’ and remember He is glorified when we are weak–therfore I WILL most gladly boast in my weaknesses–that’s why transparency is powerful for spreading the Gospel. Thank you…and thank you for introducing this awesome song!!!

    • Thanks Arcelia for your kind words!  And this song is phenomenal…look it up and find a video for it.  Gets your blood pumping with excitement for the Lord!  Love me some good worship music….it’s the worshipper in me…not the singer that comes out of me! 🙂

  7. I know that He looks at me and sees my shortcomings, but knows that it is enough for Him.  I am grateful that through Him, I have potential to be more.

    • Well Lisa, my friend, I’m gonna make a bold theological statement right here and tell you that I disagree with you.  If you have been covered by the blood of Christ, when God looks at you, he sees Jesus (NOT your shortcomings)….it’s the opportunity we have in our triumphs and failures that we learn to bring him great pleasure.  He’s not disappointed in you my friend…he delights in you most assuredly!
      Ps 147:10-12 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, 
         nor his delight in the legs of the warrior; 
      11 the LORD delights in those who fear him, 
         who put their hope in his unfailing love.

  8. Love how that moment with your child turned into something you completely were not expecting ( I have SO been in that place of fear wondering what my own girls will say to someone!), and how God used that to show YOU something too! We are pretty hard on ourselves sometimes, aren’t we? Thanks for the encouragement! 

    • I often find that the moments with my children are ones that the Lord uses to get in my face….truly, faith like a child.  Being around them brings it down to the basics…which we so often forget or try to overspiritualize! It really is as basic as “Jesus loves me”…but when we grow up….for some reason we overthink it and make a mess of simple truths don’t we?!  Thanks for sharing Lisa!

  9. No words I say right now will do what my heart feels justice. I am not a beautiful, prolific writer… But your message settles deep within my soul.. And I wanted you to know. Thank you for being a vessel and speaking Gods message so wonderfully… So prolifically! xo ~ Kristy

    • Well my friend, the fact that you used the word “prolific” in the same sentence as something I’ve done is certainly encouraging (albeit one that’s still hard for me to accept!)  That I’ve been a vessel for His use is most certainly my heart and goal.  If my words are prolific, it’s because His are….I’m just conduit….we all are!  And quite frankly…gifted or not in any area, sure takes the pressure off to be conduit instead of fully responsible for each part doesn’t it?!

  10. This is a wonderful post, Logan.  My heart really needed this today!!  Bless you!!

  11. Beautifully said Logan. I tend to focus on my “deficiencies” and compare them to others strengths. This is human nature…but it is not God’s desire for me. When my heart is focusing on my weaknesses, I am not using my strengths to worship Him fully!

    • Nikki, I think we all notice and are inspired by other’s strengths…and I believe that when we see godliness modeled, there’s nothing wrong with challenging ourselves to improve in new ways…it’s the comparison game that’s the real killer…in our spiritual lives, in blogging, and in life.  Our God is not a God of comparison….he’s a God who’s delighted in each one of his children.

  12.    I cannot sing very well either; I love to sing in church – the hymns, the contemporary songs of worship.  I have not joined our small choir because of this.  When I was working with 3-4 year olds in Head Start, my lead teacher had a beautiful choir-type voice.  When she heard me sing some nursery rhymes, she said, “Miss Karen, don’t sing, don’t sing.  That was over a decade ago.  Recently one of my daughter’s said, “Mom, don’t sing so loud in church; you are not as good a singer as you think you are.”  All of those words squashed my self esteem and I felt badly about myself, until one of my early childhood education instructors told us:” the children don’t mind if you can’t carry a tune; they just want us to sing with them.”  What a boost to my self esteem!  I know all the words to many children’s songs & I love to sing with them!   Karen

    • Karen,
      thanks for sharing.  It’s what’s in your heart that matters most.  Still, you probably won’t find me auditioning for my church’s worship band…I’ll be the happily invested worshipper in the crowd…still glorifying the Lord as much as the ones on stage!

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