Fears, Faults, & Failures

            This past week our students continued looking at the series Rhythm that they will be working through over the next month.  Each week includes a discussion question that our parents and their students are encouraged to wrestle through together.  The third week’s question read as follows, “This week students will explore the things that create tension in their own self-perception and learn the ugly truth: Being in rhythm with ourselves and being in rhythm with God go hand in hand. How we view God our Creator affects how we view His creation, ourselves. They will consider the masks they wear and the faults they try to cover up, and they'll receive a challenge to begin to shed those masks and be at peace with who they really are. Talk openly and candidly with your student this week about the things both of you have a hard time accepting when it comes to the faults you see in yourself. How can you better accept yourselves as you are?”

            Honestly, when I first read this and thought about it, I just cringed at the thought on truly evaluating myself in an open and public manner.  Are there faults that I see in myself, yes.  Do I accept myself all the time as Christ does, not really.  As I thought through this I could think of no better example of accepting ourselves, faults and all, than the Scripture that we shared with the students this past week, from John 4:3-30.  Here is a modern day telling of this Scripture.

 

            As you can see from either this video of the Scripture itself, this woman was filled with insecurities and failures.  She was terrified to come to the well with the other women because of what they would say or think.  She was stunned that Jesus, a Jewish man, would talk to her in this context since it was prohibited in their day for men/women to talk as well as Jews/Samaritans.  However, the real shock was when Jesus saw through everything and went directly to the heart of the matter.  He dealt with her in a loving manner by extending grace to her, faults and all. 

I wonder how many times we miss getting to know someone because of their faults.  I wonder how many blessings we miss because we are so preoccupied with our own faults, fears, and failures rather than devoting our time to help someone in need.  My challenge to you today, is to embrace your fears, faults, and failures as they are a part of you.  Work to better yourself by relying on God’s grace and love to assist you in this process of “chiseling” your life to be more loving and accepting of both yourself and others.