 http://tinyurl.com/c5osclp As a church we have recently finished 4 Wednesday evenings watching Louie Giglio's 'Indescribable' videos However, the final message was that we are made with incredible detail, and this shows God's wonderful love for me. It was good ... valuable ... lots of discussion ... but ... what is "ME"? Below are three perspectives ... think about it, please! Perspective 1: In January my uncle was buried. Three months before he had been living a normal, busy life when he collapsed one morning and was diagnosed with cancer in his brain and scattered throughout his body. He was very emotional which would be understandable, but the doctors said it was actually because a certain part of his brain was under pressure from a tumor. So his tears were both real but also just a pure biological response. The pressure on his brain made his thinking confused and he lost short and long term memory. He kept forgetting he had cancer and so had to go through the shock and devastation of being told he was going to die, several times. When I flew over to visit him he remembered me but couldn’t always remember my name. His body and his brain were failing him badly. He was buried in a graveyard covered with a thick coat of fresh snow. His body left to return to the elements from which it was made. An amazing construction of atoms and molecules, but one that failed, seemingly before it was supposed to, and returned to being just a pile of atoms and molecules. I love my uncle a lot. Because he is my uncle, but mostly because he was broken and he knew it. Spending time with him you realised that he knew he was broken, but redeemed. Wounded but healed. I never spoke to him about it but I’m pretty sure his love for God is strongly grounded in beating his fists on God's chest and crying out “Why!”. His compassion stems from his own struggles, his humor from his humility, his love from his knowledge that he is loved by God. And he was loved. His funeral was overcrowded with unexpected arrivals. Students he had encouraged to achieve more than the world had told them they could. Colleagues impacted by his humble dedication. Friends drawn to God by his compassion. So I believe that what made my uncle, my uncle, was his cracks, his brokenness. And more than that, how God used my uncle, unique in his brokenness, to impact other lives through relationships. And likewise I believe that what makes me me, is my unique set of cracks and how God is using them to paint something beautiful. Its annoying that I don’t really like mosaics because I think God is the ultimate mosaic artist. Building beautiful pictures from cracked pieces of glass. Its my cracks, being turned into something beautiful by Christ, that makes me ME. Perspective 2: You want to know what makes me ME? Then love me. Live with me. Relate to me. Be patient with me. Forgive me. Help me. Hear me. Show me. Teach me. Laugh with me. Cry with me. Walk with me. Serve with me. Share with me. What was the "me"? My body? No. I don't know how to define me, but I do know the "me" in all of these things is bigger, deeper, more wonderful than any biology. And you can know me. God does! Perspective 3: I'm worried because I think Giglio gave us half a theology. He presents it wonderfully and powerful, but leaves out the better half of the message.
The universe is incredible, yes. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, yes. God paid incredible detail to making me. Trillions of cells in complexity ... no quarrel. Wow. But ... but ... elephants have many, many, many times more cells, molecules, and atoms than I do, does that mean God loves them more than "little" me. Numbers do not make importance. Size does not define value. Numbers and size and scale are awesome messages that God is so much bigger than all that. But, this is not the message God is making, its only one starting point. I am made in God's image ... what make me ME, is the soul he breaths into me. My DNA gives me physical uniqueness, but it is my soul that defines my spiritual identity that is loved by God. My soul and body are intimately bound together, but the "me" that worships, praises, and serves God starts with my soul. The indescribable greatness of God in making "me" is not the biological detail, but that God gives me a soul in His spiritual image ... now that's really WOW. When one day my body is turned to ashes (and my decomposed DNA adds CO2 into atmosphere!) that is not the end of me, because that is not ME. The awesomeness of God is that he gave me a soul to be in relationship with Him!
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