Sunday, July 12
Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.
—James 3:11-12
Those who practice non-violence, for example, would be
hesitant to eat animals that have been killed in an inhumane way, lest that
violence be ingested along with the protein and vitamins of the animal. When
we apply this principle to our souls, we need to ask ourselves two
questions. First, are we living into who we were made to be?
Second, what effect does the fruit of our lives have on others?
When
we try to be what we are not, our souls become misshapen. We are unable to
fully live into the wholeness heaven intends for us. We end up
wondering what our purpose is and why we feel unfulfilled. When
we compromise who we are, the effect we have on others is
diminished. They do not experience the richness of our being as
God intended it because they are receiving only a partial, and disguised,
version of us.
The truth is that we have been created to be uniquely
ourselves because we have something to offer to the world. We are
a part of the nourishment of the world. When we hide who we are,
or try to be who we are not, we and others suffer. But, when we are just who
we were meant to be, we yield the fruit that feeds the world.
Gracious God, give me the courage to be always and only who you have made me to be.
