IS IT ALL ABOUT ME?

This personalized hoodie suddenly appeared on my FACEBOOK site. I suspect it's part of an advertising scheme to appeal to everyone's ego. I'm certainly not going to buy one!!

Well, we all do like to have something with our own name on it to distinguish us from everyone else. We like name tags and place cards. We want to feel distinctive, to have our own “thing,” our own I.D., to stand out from the crowd. We want recognition. It's part of our inborn nature. We don't want to be a “nobody.” We want to be “somebody!”

That desire to be somebody has been a part of mankind's disposition ever since creation. Even before that--in heaven. There the beautiful created angel Lucifer unleashed his pride and ego to stage a coup and take over God's position.  Satan got thrown out of heaven for that. He attempted the same trick again with Adam and Eve--and succeeded. This time our first parents got thrown out of the Garden of Eden. The devil never gives up on his ego lures. He tried it once more by tempting Jesus in the wilderness to switch on His divine powers and bow down and worship him. In turn Satan promised Him worldly gain and acclaim. Satan bombed out on that one!

In youth we keep searching to find out who we are. Many become conflicted and afflicted with an identity crisis. We want to be different but at the same time we want to be like our peers. We have a kind of herd complex. It's a paradox. God created each of us with a unique undying soul. We don't have to struggle to discover who we are or to become somebody. When we surrender ourselves to our Creator, we don't become “homogenized” and lose our distinct identity. On the contrary, it is only when we are “in Christ” that we genuinely find ourselves and all the special gifts with which God has endowed each of us. It is then that we become truly fulfilled. 

And it is then that we discover our "thing," our purpose for living, our place in God's grand scheme of things. We become God's "somebody" and don't have to identify ourselves by having some "thing" that we wouldn't expect anyone else to understand.

I have tried to express this, to paint it with words as follows:

I'M NOT NOBODY!

There is a bursting in my spirit

to find my identity.

The world pressures me

advocating conformity

debasing my personality

championing uniformity.

I abhor the abnormality

of my struggle for individuality

as I stumble around to see

whether I have any destiny.

I feel swallowed up in the futility

of being just a facsimile

of humanity.

BUT...

*Jesus knows my name!

I'm not a nonentity.

Before I was born

God predestined me

and designed Calvary

to set me free

from Satan's captivity

and break me out of the mold

of anonymity.

I'm not consigned to the monotony

of mankind's homogeneity.

In Jesus, I'm not a generality.

What a discovery!

I'm not nobody!

I'm not generic

and I'm really ME

*because Jesus knows my name!

“...and He calls His own sheep by name...”

John 10:3b

* And I don't need a hoodie to identify me!

Note: How many found the misspelling on the hoodie??