Made for Greatness

This may come as a surprise to you (it certainly does to me) but we are all made for greatness.  Maybe not fame, fortune, and popularity, but in each of us is the greatness that only God can create and bring out in a world that is constantly telling us otherwise.  In the fairy tale of our lives we are the hero, the prince or princess, the savior of the world around us, the messenger and example sent to save the village.  As Frederick Buechner said "Not only does evil come disguised in the world of the fairly tale but often good does too."

We are sinners but that's only part of the story.  As John Eldridge says in The Sacred Romance "Your evaluation of your soul, which is drawn from a world filled with people still terribly confused about the nature of their souls, is probably wrong."  The fall made it much harder to achieve the greatness we were designed for but it's still possible and the goal of our lives.  We are God's chosen ones, the object of His affection, created for relationship with him and greatness in his name.

As the Psalmist said, "what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor." Ps 8:4-5

So why do we run? Why do we settle for a mediocre life absent of adventure and the greatness God designed us for?  I think Eldridge perfectly sums it up here: "As hard as it may be for us to see our sin, it is far harder still for us to remember our glory.  The pain of the memory of our former glory is so excruciating, we would rather stay in our pigsty than return to our true home." (The Sacred Romance)

Acknowledging this and living it out are two completely different things, so how do we pull our heads up out of the muck, mire, and noise of life?  Away from our sin and dejection, negative, defeatist feelings about ourselves, our worth and our potential to achieve the glory and greatness we were designed to embody?

Walking with God. It's the only answer, the only approach that is effective and feeds our desire for intimacy and for the "the courtship that began at the Garden (of Eden) and culminates in the wedding feast of the lamb." (Sacred Romance).  Allowing God to woo us with his love, beauty, and adventurous character.  Day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute.  Being caught up in His Glory, by the fact that the creator of the universe, all of the beauty around us, angels, heaven, and everything in between wants nothing more than to love, encourage, and grow us into the fullness of relationship with him.  

As 2 Corinthians 4:16 says "Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day."  This is the method, the process, the only way to rise above our lowly world and lowly view of ourselves.  The only way to be transformed by His love, glory, and beauty into what we were created to be. Day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute.