One day, I walked into a fellow seminarian’s room to find a beautiful quote posted on the door of his closet. The quote was from Dr. Seuss which said, "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." There is a ring of truth to this quote. It also speaks of the reality that we, human beings, indeed, are so often dependent on what other people say and think about us.
What is thought of and said about us are so powerful and highly influential in today’s society. We see ourselves trying to “fit in” by acting, wearing, and being in certain ways so as to meet up with expectations and avoid negative comments and judgments. At times, in trying so hard to be accepted, we turn against who we really are, and most importantly we go against who we were created to be. Many lives have been destroyed just because we don’t feel accepted. Many lives have been destroyed just because we cannot fit in.
It is sad because in trying to have the world accept us, we forget that we never have to try to do that in the first place, for we are precious in the eyes of God who is our Father, who has created us, and who has loved us from eternity. He loves us the way we are – yes, just the way we are, in our own imperfections and sinfulness.
Ah, this is so easy to say, but hard to experience for we seem to be conditioned to think that we can never to be good enough to be loved. Moreover, the concept of God as our Father is hard to comprehend, to accept, and to experience because of our own experiences of human fatherhood which are often flawed and damaged, even, at times, painful.
It is hard to experience God’s fatherhood in our broken society where the father figure, from time to time, is associated with many memories of verbal, physical, emotional, and even sexual abuses. It is hard to do so when those who are fathers have not acted like fathers, rather like an angry and demanding or completely absent figures. It is hard to see God as a father when the fathers in our lives were not the fathers that they should have been.
Hence, in our own woundedness, God remains to be an angry and harsh father whom we hope to please by striving to be good. He remains so far away, and his voice calling us his beloved becomes hard to be heard. We chase after the hope of being accepted, while there is that one who has always loved us “with an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3).
“You are my son in whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11). These are the words which God the Father spoke to Jesus after his baptism. They are the words that God spoke to each of us as well, for, by virtue of our baptism, we have become ourselves “children of God” (Roman 8:16). We are, therefore, first and foremost, beloved sons and daughters of God in whom he is well pleased. And this is something that he constantly wishes us to remember – we are his beloved sons and daughters and he loves us, not as who we could have been, but as who we are. We bear in ourselves the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27). In Christ, we have become God’s flesh and blood. We therefore are his beloved.
The challenge remaining is to accept such an unconditional love. Yes, the challenge is to let ourselves be loved by God. We must accept that we need not to be someone else other than ourselves in order to be loved, we need not to try to make others love us and accept us when we have someone - or rather, we have the One, who truly matters, love us and accept us for all eternity.
A seminary professor was vacationing with his wife in Gatlinburg, TN. One morning, they were eating breakfast at a little restaurant, hoping to enjoy a quiet, family meal. While they were waiting for their food, they noticed a distinguished looking, white-haired man moving from table to table, visiting with the guests. The professor leaned over and whispered to his wife, 'I hope he doesn't come over here.' But sure enough, the man did come over to their table.
'Where are you folks from?' he asked in a friendly voice '
Oklahoma,' they answered.
'Great to have you here in Tennessee,' the stranger said. 'What do you do for a living?' 'I teach at a seminary, I replied.
'Oh, so you teach preachers how to preach, do you? Well, I've got a really great story for you.' And with that, the gentleman pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with the couple.
The professor groaned and thought to himself, 'Great .. Just what I need .....another preacher story!'
The man started, 'See that mountain over there? (pointing out the restaurant window). Not far from the base of that mountain, there was a boy born to an unwed mother. He had a hard time growing up, because every place he went, he was always asked the same question, 'Hey boy, Who's your daddy?' Whether he was at school, in the grocery store or drug store, people would ask the same question, 'Who's your daddy?'
He would hide at recess and lunch time from other students. He would avoid going in to stores because that question hurt him so bad. "When he was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to his church. He would always go in late and slip out early to avoid hearing the question, 'Who's your daddy?' But one day, the new preacher said the benediction so fast that he got caught and had to walk out with the crowd. Just about the time he got to the back door, the new preacher, not knowing anything about him, put his hand on his shoulder and asked him, 'Son, who's your daddy?'
The whole church got deathly quiet. He could feel every eye in the church looking at him. Now everyone would finally know the answer to the question, 'Who's your daddy?'
'This new preacher, though, sensed the situation around him and using discernment that only the Holy Spirit could give, said the following to that scared little boy... 'Wait a minute! I know who you are! I see the family resemblance now, You are a child of God.' With that he patted the boy on his shoulder and said, 'Boy, you've got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.'
'With that, the boy smiled for the first time in a long time and walked out the door a changed person. He was never the same again. Whenever anybody asked him, 'Who's your Daddy?' he'd just tell them, 'I'm a Child of God..''
The distinguished gentleman got up from the table and said, 'Isn't that a great story?' The professor responded that it really was a great story!
As the man turned to leave, he said, 'You know, if that new preacher hadn't told me that I was one of God's children, I probably never would have amounted to anything!' And he walked away.
The seminary professor and his wife were stunned He called the waitress over & asked her, 'Do you know who that man was -- the one who just left that was sitting at our table?'
The waitress grinned and said, 'Of course. Everybody here knows him. That's Ben Hooper. He's the governor of Tennessee.'
'Where are you folks from?' he asked in a friendly voice '
Oklahoma,' they answered.
'Great to have you here in Tennessee,' the stranger said. 'What do you do for a living?' 'I teach at a seminary, I replied.
'Oh, so you teach preachers how to preach, do you? Well, I've got a really great story for you.' And with that, the gentleman pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with the couple.
The professor groaned and thought to himself, 'Great .. Just what I need .....another preacher story!'
The man started, 'See that mountain over there? (pointing out the restaurant window). Not far from the base of that mountain, there was a boy born to an unwed mother. He had a hard time growing up, because every place he went, he was always asked the same question, 'Hey boy, Who's your daddy?' Whether he was at school, in the grocery store or drug store, people would ask the same question, 'Who's your daddy?'
He would hide at recess and lunch time from other students. He would avoid going in to stores because that question hurt him so bad. "When he was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to his church. He would always go in late and slip out early to avoid hearing the question, 'Who's your daddy?' But one day, the new preacher said the benediction so fast that he got caught and had to walk out with the crowd. Just about the time he got to the back door, the new preacher, not knowing anything about him, put his hand on his shoulder and asked him, 'Son, who's your daddy?'
The whole church got deathly quiet. He could feel every eye in the church looking at him. Now everyone would finally know the answer to the question, 'Who's your daddy?'
'This new preacher, though, sensed the situation around him and using discernment that only the Holy Spirit could give, said the following to that scared little boy... 'Wait a minute! I know who you are! I see the family resemblance now, You are a child of God.' With that he patted the boy on his shoulder and said, 'Boy, you've got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.'
'With that, the boy smiled for the first time in a long time and walked out the door a changed person. He was never the same again. Whenever anybody asked him, 'Who's your Daddy?' he'd just tell them, 'I'm a Child of God..''
The distinguished gentleman got up from the table and said, 'Isn't that a great story?' The professor responded that it really was a great story!
As the man turned to leave, he said, 'You know, if that new preacher hadn't told me that I was one of God's children, I probably never would have amounted to anything!' And he walked away.
The seminary professor and his wife were stunned He called the waitress over & asked her, 'Do you know who that man was -- the one who just left that was sitting at our table?'
The waitress grinned and said, 'Of course. Everybody here knows him. That's Ben Hooper. He's the governor of Tennessee.'
“No one is an orphan on earth, for God is our Father, and we are his children.” – Don Calosso
“You are my son in whom I am well pleased” (Mk 1:11)
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