12/12/2023
Are you an individual? Do you see yourself as physically distinct? How about your personality? In fact, your physical traits describe what you are, while your intangible characteristics identify who you are… together they are you. Interestingly, when we are telling someone who we are as individuals we typically refer to our physical selves, but this is quite a limitation. Although we look alike in many ways, God has made each of us somewhat unique, but, on the other hand, our personalities are experienced more than seen, and their permutations are so boundless in nature that only God can truly understand them in total. When Jesus speaks in John 17:22-23, which of these is he referring to?
“The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
John 17:22-23 ESV
Jesus didn’t look like God, but He certainly felt, acted, and reacted like Him. Jesus was physically individual, but personally He was one with God. This is how God wishes to interact with us... not so much bodily as individuals, but spiritually as personalities.
When I was a young man and my wife Ann was expecting our first child, I was incredibly happy and expectant of fatherhood, but I was also afraid. Would Ann be able to do this, would the child be physically and mentally sound, but most of all... would I be a good father and provider?
One day I was working with an older man who was about to retire. He had taken me into his tutelage at work and we had developed a deep personal relationship, so I confided my fear in him. After I had told him of my fright, he leaned back in his chair, and began to tell me a story. This is what he said:
“Rich, I know a doctor who lives in Chattanooga, he has identical twin sons. Each of these boys is like the other in every way, and have the identical genetic makeup, each has the same parents, were raised the same way, went to the same schools, ate the same foods, and in every way had the same advantages. Today, one of those boys is a doctor like his father, and the other is in prison. So ask yourself, where did this father fail?” I sat pondering this dilemma for a moment before he continued, “He didn’t fail. We do the absolute best we can, but in the end the child must stand on its own. It is up to the child to make the right choices in life using those things we have imparted to them.”
My friend was incredibly wise, and he gave me much wisdom over the years we knew each other, but this particular story has been at the forefront of my memory of him and I have employed it in many ways throughout my life. Through it I came to realize that although we are physically similar in many ways, God deals with us in our most diverse nature... our personality, and this is where we must take our instruction in the Written Word of God, and make the choices that carry us forward. We might have two eyes, one eye, or be totally blind, but beyond our physical sight... we view the world in infinite ways. This is the realm of God, and in this way we have the ability to see His glory... as being infinite.
Oswald Chambers uses the example of an island when defining the difference between the physical individual, and personality. Listen as he writes...
“Personality is like an island, we know nothing about the great depths underneath, consequently we cannot estimate ourselves... there is only one Being Who understands us, and that is our creator.” - Oswald Chambers
In other words, physically God has made us to look similar, and in these features we can define our individuality, but in personality we are deep and unfathomable, even to ourselves, and we can barely scratch the surface of who we are. This is where God wishes to provide us with His glory, and make us one with each other, with Jesus, and with Him.
So despite our physical perfections, and imperfections, our mental advantages, and disadvantages, or our spiritual strengths and weaknesses of faith, we each must choose how we will see, experience, and accept God’s glory. He desires us to be one with Him... are we making the right choices? Are we blaming our failures on our Holy Father? Are you leaning on our disadvantages and using them as excuses for our lack of oneness with God? If we are failing in our relationship with Jesus Christ and God, it is time to strip away our claim to personal individuality, and drop to our knees in unifying prayer. God is waiting in all His glory to join with us there. To interweave His fingers with ours, and mold our thoughts so that they conform to His.
“I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."”
John 17:26 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for who I am physically, but thank you much more for the person I am becoming. Thank you for your Holy Word and Spirit which are shaping my personality and healing me in ways that only you and I can see. I long to be one with your Son Jesus Christ, and in Him, you. Give me your glory Father, so that I can realize the oneness, and feel the Love you are. Let no physical or mental ailment, no disadvantage, keep me from seeing you, and experiencing your guiding hand. Help me to claim responsibility for my failures, and to overcome them by seeking you more diligently. Meet me in my prayer closet, and impart your wisdom to me. Let my choices be good ones, and lead me in the ways of righteousness. Lift me up Father, and bring me to where you are. In these things I praise you always, and in these things I know we are just beginning our togetherness; take the boundless nature of who I am and join it completely with you. Let your will be mine Father; now and for evermore.
Rich Forbes