Friday, November 7, 2008

Insecure?

I stumbled across a sentence in a book which, paraphrased, states "Only secure people can serve God." (Try and take a guess at which Rick Warren book that is.) He goes on to state that those who, for example, have serious pride issues or who seek approval & validation from others are showing signs of insecurity and therefore cannot serve as Jesus served.

Wow.

We had a few minutes of good discussion on this recently in our small group. Here is what we (and myself) have concluded: as a blanket statement, that is not entirely true. It is evident in scripture that God does not limit His work to those who are most equipped & qualified; He often calls out those who are weak & unworthy of such a calling. However, to serve as Christ served in his time on Earth is to do so without approval, recognition, validation, or reward - often times with opposition or disapproval, that is, if someone even sees you. This can certainly be a problem for someone who lacks security in who they are (or for the Christian, in who God's Word says they are in Christ Jesus).

This can especially be a problem is you read too much into my last statement. There is no denying that we are a broken, fallen people, so of course there isn't a single one of us who doesn't have to battle insecurities in some way, shape, or form. Nevertheless, it is even more true today than yesterday that to follow Jesus we are to be radically different from the rest of the world - for example, what the liberal media has bombarded us with for the last 24 months, and what the majority of America voted for on Tuesday. We are to follow his example for the sake of emulating him, and ultimately (hopefully) offering others that saving relationship, and to do so without expectation of gain.

I'd like to hear others' thoughts on this subject. If someone put a gun to your head, would you say you are a secure or an insecure person as a whole? What insecurities do you most often experience and/or battle? To be a Christian (a true follower of Jesus), do you feel that requires total security, in who you are, or in Christ in you? If so, how well do you measure up? What agreements or disagreements do you have with anything I've written?

EDIT: It was pointed out that in the next to last paragraph there may have been a hint of a personal political statement. Since that was written 3 days ago, it's hard to pinpoint what my exact thought process was at the time. I feel my only intent was to use a current event as an example, which in this case it doesn't get much more current than the election. My comment was directed to us as a society, and how our me-first attitude (i.e. spending money we don't have for things we don't need) has influenced a majority of voters to swing left. Neverthless, it doesn't matter what I think or what I mean to say. My speech should not have a hint of bias, nor should it even suggest that religious & political views are always synonymous with each other. My blog is not intended to be a political platform, nor am I very politically-minded. So for that, I apologize. If my words are ever anything but God-honoring, please call me out, as I know most of you would ask the same of me.

3 comments:

Cary said...

As a Christian, I feel I'm pretty secure.

As a teacher, very insecure.

As an artist, also very insecure.

As for being who I am, I'm rockin' secure in that.

I'm kinda weird like that.

this was a great post. I'm not a big fan of the Warren books either :p

TenaciousT said...

I feel generally the same as cary. And I agree that the statement should be qualified, because Christ doesn't need anything, even our securities in ourselves, to serve others through us, but serving with insecurities is like serving behind a glass wall in many ways.
I have recently learned that there needs to be this delicate balance where you have enough insecurity in yourself to truly be humble and submit yourself to Christ while having enough security in the fact that Christ will use you and work through who you are to believe you can accomplish great things (and thus try to do exactly that).
i hope all that rambling all made sense.

oh, and i know this is your personal page and you are free to make whatever political statement you want, but somehow lumping what happened with the election is based on people not following Jesus is another blanket statement that isn't fair to make. i don't mean to be controversial, but i really feel that sort of statement is out of line and untrue...

TenaciousT said...

Thanks for the edit. I appreciate your clarification. And I wouldn't have said anything if I didn't know we had that kind of healthy blog relationship. :)