As I was purposelessly scrolling through an online social media outlet tonight, I stumbled across a video with a powerful message. (http://www.hefty.co/love-your-body/) The overt message about women being comfortable with themselves and not letting the inner discouragement affect their self esteem, while powerful, is not the most powerful message encased in this video. In order to understand why esteem issues effect people to the extent that they do, we must understand that these women were essentially suffering in isolated silence. But, they are not alone... and neither are you.
Since I am writing this blog, I plan to circle it back to me and tell somewhat of a story. You see, to the untrained eye, I appear as a smart, middle-aged, professional man that has a pretty firm grasp on my world. What you do not see is the vast ocean of insecurity lying beneath, almost like the immense amount of water, teeming with life below the Arctic Ice Shelf. Having navigated this far through life, it fortunately does not incapacitate me the way it does for some. I have merely learned to live with it and dismiss the nagging side effects in the back of my brain.
Over the last few weeks, I have "enlisted" the help of a handful of my friends to assist me in accountability to maintain discipline in a few areas of my life. I did not realize when I asked for their assistance that I would also be asked to provide accountability for them, too. What an odd concept! These men that I envisioned had everything together admitted to having parts of themselves crumbling on the inside without a brother to walk alongside them and help them build it back up.
Through this season, I began to more clearly realize something that I had only guessed at before: we are all falling apart on the inside and need to become more effective as a community. Or, as a friend of mine likes to put it, #weareallbettertogether. That's right, we ARE all better together, just the way God planned it. We are all one body, made to work in connection with each other. Just like a finger can't work without the hand, so we do not function properly without each other.
We must realize that the more we struggle alone, the more the enemy wins. As Taryn put it in the video "I thought I was alone..." That is exactly where we are at our weakest. On the field of battle, the best way to defeat an enemy is to isolate them and then take them out. But, when we band together, as brothers and sister, realizing that we are loved, we are special, we are forgiven... we no longer have to live in lonely isolation. We must pull together and call on each other to help us hold each other up. We must not lose sight of who & whose we are and not let others lose sight of that either! WE ARE NOT ALONE!
John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love on another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Matthew 18:20 For wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.
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