Thursday, January 29, 2009

Increasing Freedom e*b week 3


For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen's University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt


What does it really mean to be fully human? I tried to tackle that question for my class and felt I fell woefully short of even scratching the depths. You can read about it here.

Over the last several years, the Lord has been renewing my mind regarding my identity in Him, bringing freedom to the places where I've been bound up in "un-humanness."

I appreciated the readings for my class this week and the depth they have brought to my understanding of what it means to be fully human, and that being made in the image of God means I need to pursue being fully human.

I had always assumed that I needed to be less human and more God-like, as if they were two opposing ways of being. So this new slant of thinking has caused me to examine myself once again for areas where I am laboring under "shoulds" or "expectations" instead of thriving and being fully alive in every area. Then, I'm not only more God-like, I'm more human as well.

See, God created humans in His own image. And He's called me (and you) to be an image bearer...to reflect in our humanity God's characteristics. To be just, relational, spiritual, and creative...to be unified in all that we do. It is not my spirit trapped in the physical body; rather, I am a unified being, called to wholistically be an image of the Most High. [1]

God's timing has been all over this course of study. Why am I surprised at how intricately woven every detail of my life is? There are no accidents. Nothing coincidental about studying this very thing right now.

Sunday, I asked a couple of friends to pray for me. I didn't have anything specific necessarily...just knew they needed to be the ones. Amber and Bridget placed their hands on me and quietly began to pray.

And God came.

Lately, Amber has felt like she's supposed to pray for joy, deep-down-bubbling-over-belly-laughing-kind-of-joy. So she started off praying that. Then our friend Tami came over to get in on the fun. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by friends and I felt loved beyond measure.

Somewhere in there, someone began praying for more freedom to be who I am created to be, to be as crazy as God has called me to be. One person even declared that no matter how crazy I got, they'd all claim me as their friend. Now that's loyalty, seeing as they have no idea what kind of craziness God will call me to.

YES!

Then at home group last night, I got a new name:

Increasing Freedom

Sounds like God's opening the way for me to become fully human.

I'll take that.



1. Steve Robbins, The Doctrine of Man and the Worship of God (Inside Worship Magazine)

2 comments:

  1. I am so excited to see where all this change and growth and freedom lead!

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  2. Heather uncorked... let it fly! Seriously a hard thing to do. First the traditional religious blockage that is imposed on most of us, and then going beyond what you think people expect and into what / who you were wired to be. I am also working on that, probably not very successfully.

    May you find and express it all.

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