We each strive to be our own person, to be an
individual. No one wants anyone telling us how to live or what decisions to
make. We shout for our rights and sometimes demand our privileges are our
rights. You notice this when children demand things at home when they are
growing up and stretching their wings to be independent.
This gift of individuality is not a right, but a
gift. So, how is this gift? Well, first, go back to the first assumption, God created you;
He created each of us. If we stop with only that statement and pursue it no
further, we say, “Yes, He made me.” God’s great knowledge and understanding in
creating my body is amazing, for without the heart, I would be dead or without
the brain, I would be dead. Consider though, your spirit and individuality. If
we were involved in a Christian religion as a child or as an adult, we will
grant the fact God made our spirit; He gave us a spiritual essence. You say, however,
individuality is what I made of myself since my birth. It is the choices I
chose to make; the road I chose to travel. God has nothing to do with my
individuality, we may say. Maybe this is so, considering we made choices that were
not always the best choices but good choices. Is that not the common thought expressed
in the poem, “The Road Less Traveled,” by Robert Frost? Yet, is there not more
to individuality than this? Consider then, we human beings have been in
existence since day six of creation; hence, we are “old enough” to choose our
own way, to become who we want to be. “No one is in charge of me but me,” we
might have said or heard. Now, consider, since our creation, which we admitted,
God was before we began, since before time began. With this reasoning in place,
that He made us, we must realize individuality does not come from ourselves,
but is a gift from God.
Now, since we conceded individuality is a gift from
God, we should consider then, how is that to play out
in our realm of life of four score and ten years with the spirit God put in us?
How do we reconcile our spiritual side to our individuality? Many of us
consider our spiritual side and our own individuality separate from each other.
We consider it our way to live, living our own lives. Consider though, since
individuality is a gift from God, individuality is the gift God gave us to
express in our own way how God is working in our lives and how He wants us to
work in His world for His purpose. “What?” you say. Yes, if you agree
individuality is a gift from God, as spirituality is a gift given to us at our
own creation, then you must acknowledge each of these is to be used somehow in
His purpose for our lives on this earth at this time. Wow, what a consideration!
When we give our lives to Christ, not only are we accepting His free gift of
salvation from our
sinful life and accepting
eternal life with God, but we are giving all of ourselves, which
includes every aspect of our personality/individuality, to Him to use for His
purposes. Jesus said this in
Matthew 16:24-25 when he tried to explain to the disciples about following Him,
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone desires
to be my disciple, let him
deny himself, forget his own interests, and take up his cross and follow me
[Conform wholly to my example in living] . For whoever is bent on
saving his temporal life will lose eternal life, but whoever loses
his life, his comfort and security here, for my sake will find life
everlasting.”
Individuality is the
shell outside our spiritual life; our individuality is what we must give to God if we
are to be followers of Jesus. To
say no to this is either to be a child and means we have not grown into a
deeper relationship with God or we actually
have not given ourselves to Jesus. Which have you done?
Individuality is the shell or covering of our whole
person. Inside resides the part of us God made for Himself and most like Himself,
the spirit. Our individuality/personality must be given to God for us to give ourselves
to Him to be in fellowship with Him. Individuality can corrupt human nature for
its own gain and purposes, so, if we are going to follow Jesus and become more
Christ-like, we must yield our individual nature, a gift from God, back to Him.
We can stay as little children who are self-centered and interested in their
own gain or we can allow God to break the outer shell of individuality, which
allows our spiritual life to emerge.
If we are going to grow
more Christ-like, we must continue to yield ourselves to Him
so we can grow. In doing so, He will break through the individual of self,
which desires its own way and its own wants, to get to the essence God has put into
each of us at our creation, our spirit. Each of our individual spirits is the
part of us that hears and understands God. Through this hearing and understanding,
He leads us to obedience and we become more and more as He is. God
wants to bring you into complete union with Him just as He is with Christ, but
until we give up the right to ourselves, He will not. We must “deny ourselves,
take up our cross, and follow Him” (Matthew 16:24 New American
Standard Bible). From this point, our spiritual life will grow.
Individuality is the part of our selves which expresses our spirituality;
yielded to Him, we will not only grow but also show the world the way to true
Life.
