Freedom to Be

I love the freedom not to have to be better at anything than anybody, not to have to look more gussied up than I am to attract some admirer, I don't have to convince anyone that what I believe is right. The important things come from God and he doesn't need any help from me. It always interests me to see pictures of people on Facebook that don't look like them at all, and I wonder if they just don't like their own looks so much they have to put forth an image of themselves that they think more people would like. Maybe people just want to look like the movie stars. I suppose that has been an obsession of people for all of time, or, at least since the advent of film technology. Most anyone could probably look like a movie star if they had the money to hire a stylist or makeup artist like the movie stars have. I'm not saying you don't have to be good looking to get into the movies; you probably do. I'm just saying, everybody doesn't look like a movie star, and why should they? What's important is what we look like on the inside, in our soul, in our heart, whether we are kind to people, whether we are civil and courteous and gracious, honest and fair in our dealing with others. None of us is perfect, but God looks at the heart, not how we look to other people. He said we should be perfect, but that was probably a bad translation. He is the only perfect one. But if Christ lives in us, if we let him, he makes us more like him from the inside out. I only have about four more minutes before I have to leave, because I'm going to my midweek meeting with my small fellowship of people who love each other, perhaps not perfectly, but we value each other's company, and we love Jesus. And that is the best life has to offer.