Built and Designed to be You

Have you ever wanted to be somebody or something else? Like you turn on the hit TV show “The Voice” and hear an amazing singer and long to have a voice like that. So much so that you begin to imagine you have this amazing singing voice that could fill and auditorium and wow the judges?

Or maybe you were watching the football game and wish you had the skills to be the lead running back. You find yourself filling your free time daydreaming about being the brilliant lawyer with the photographic memory of your favorite TV series.

Truth be told, we all see other people’s talents and desire to be like or better then them. Most of us have these desires in fleeting moments with the knowledge that it is just a daydream.

I remember, as a kid, playing “Tony Hawk Pro-skater” on my XBOX. I loved that game! I was not a skater myself. No I tried that and failed miserably. Yet I loved this video game where I could become something I wasn’t. I created my own skater, built up his skills and accessories. Then I would conquer all the skate parks in the game.

Yet my fantasy wouldn’t end when I turned off my box. I would find myself dreaming about skating. I would daydream about being a world-renowned skater. I’d even look at old warehouses, fences, parks and malls, in real life, and imagine the perfect skating route through there.

In my obsession for this game, during that season of my life, I was able to always keep it in the proper focus that it was just make believe. It was fun to think about and play, but in reality I would never be able to skate the way I dreamed about. I don’t have the balance, the skill or the fearless attitude to attempt such stunts. And I was ok with not being that.

When Make Believe Impacts Reality

What happens when our fascinations with our thoughts collide with our reality? Above I describe a fascination with a silly game that even affected my offline imagination, but it never got hold of my belief of who I am. I did not seek to find my identity in that game, in my clothing style, in my abilities, or in living out the fantasy. However, there are so many struggles and fascinations we face that could adversely affect our reality.

We may not recognize at first when our fascination turns to an unhealthy obsession. We may not even notice the subtle changes we are making to live out a “new reality.” Sometime early in life or in a moment of weakness, we become exposed to a way of thinking that feels like it is setting us free. We find ourselves going back to this thought and build up on it until it becomes a constant form of release.

“If I could just be the way I envision myself, I wouldn’t have this hole in my heart.” Each of us face the struggle from a unique perspective, but the struggle is still the same. “If I was just athletic,” “If I was just smarter,” “If I was just from a different ethnic group,” “If I was just a girl,” or “If I was just not here anymore” are types of question that plague many people today. Somewhere a thought popped into their head that caused them to question their current reality and now life as they know it is unsatisfying.

Consider a young boy who sees the attention that his sister gets for being a princess. He already knows he isn’t like other boys because he doesn’t like sports, cars or grunting. He gets teased for being feminine and his sister gets doted on for the same characteristics. He begins thinking life would just be easier if he was a girl. This leads to a fascination with girls clothing and even imagining getting a sex change. In his struggle to understand his own identity, he fills the void with a fascination to escape. He becomes less and less secure in his own skin and wants out. The question is, will his emptiness be filled by this change, or will it only be magnified?

God Created You As You

Sometimes we get this idea that we are just part of a mold. Almost like the idea that we are a product of an assembly line that makes everybody the same. However that is far from what God reveals to us in the Scriptures. From the opening chapter of the Bible God tells us that He created us in His image (Genesis 1:26-27). If we consider this passage for a moment we see three important truths: God created us, He created us in His image, and He created us male and female. God has a specific plan for who we are to be and He doesn’t make mistakes.

In the second chapter of Genesis (2:7), we see that God got on His hands and knees, got His hands dirty, and formed man. We are His special creation that He breathed His breath into. We only will understand the fullness of joy in living our lives according to His will.

King David express so many great truths of God specifically creating you to be who you are in Psalm 139. You were no accident because He “knit you together.” God Himself put you together, from your DNA to your toe nail, He created you specifically. He saw your “unformed substance,” which means He knows how you are wired. He knows what makes you tick, He knows your passions, your fears, your desires, your hopes and all those things you try to keep buried in the closet. He knows you so very well. So that we can agree with the psalmist, we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Although we are created specifically by God and made in His image, we all were born in sin (Romans 3:23). Sin mars the image of God in us. Sin creates doubts about who we are and our importance. Sin separates us from the God who created us. It is sin that causes that great void in our lives that we seek to fill with so many obsessions. The young man above thinks his problem would be gone if he was a girl, yet it would only be the beginning of seeking to fill the void. He would continue to search in new places because nothing will fill the void left by sin except Jesus Christ.

That is why Jesus came to this earth, to solve our sin problem. He lived a perfect life and went to the cross on our behalf so that we could have forgiveness of sins and find peace with Him. When we chose to follow Jesus, we will see how He is the answer to our tough questions and our deepest longings.

When we surrender to Christ, we find that He is working in us, creating a masterpiece of our lives for His glory and our good (Ephesians 2:10; Romans 8:28). He begins to restore the image of God as it was intended in our life. Our souls searching finds rest in Jesus Christ.

Reconciled Reality

When we see that Jesus is the answer to the emptiness in our soul, He sets things right in our lives. We see that trying to be something we were not designed for is a rebellion against our Creator. We see that God has uniquely and creatively created us the way we are. He has gifted us each uniquely, to be different and that different is good.

For the struggles with sexual identity above, if these teachings are true, then the answer for this young man is not being a girl and it is not in being a man. No the answer is being in Christ, being a Christian man. His views of manhood being rooted in sports, cars and superficial macho-ness caused him to question his own identity. Yet true manhood is only found in Jesus Christ, our Creator.

There is a real enemy who seeks to rob us of our joy, yet Jesus came to be our joy. He promises that when we find ourselves in Him, He will give us abundant life (John 10:10). What are you struggling with today? How can knowing that Jesus specifically, brilliantly and creatively designed you to be you bring rest to your struggle?