What do people think when they look at you?  We want others to view our “best self.” Think about it; no one posts the picture with you stuffing ice cream in your face and laying around in your SpongeBob pajamas. We post the “perfect” picture that captures our family, our smile, or our “best side.”  Yet, is that really you?  Why not let the world see the real you, SpongeBob pajamas and all?

We all know that answer. Someone will judge me. They would not accept me. I can’t have that face on my latest Instagram post. People will laugh, comment, or just realize that I’m not as together as I seem. There is simply no way that we can expose ourselves at that deep of a level. Derek Webb, an amazing singer/songwriter who understands God’s grace at a level I have not achieved, gives another perspective. “The best thing that could happen to us,” he explains, “is that all our faults and sins are broadcast on a huge TV screen behind us.”  How is this best?  If I can’t showcase my pajama choice, I certainly could never allow the world to see all my sins and flaws and expose everything.

As embarrassed as I would be, I understand Derek’s point perfectly. See, he goes on to explain that when everything is stripped bare, all that is left is us before God, our Creator. Then we realize how naked and ashamed we really are. But God does not laugh or post a hateful comment. He looks on us with love, deep abiding and miles abounding love. He looks on us and smiles. He made us. He knows us. Every day and every word, He knows them all. (Psalm 139)  He runs to us and stares. We are beautifully His.

What defines you?  I mean really defines you. When someone asks, “What do you know about —-?,” what would your family say, your friend, your coworker?  When you sit down at night, what is your own answer to that question. We have gotten to a difficult place in our world. We are too quick to judge, too quick to assume, and too quick to really care. We want a definition. Like two-year olds running wild, we want to know why. And we want to know right now. We want answers.  We demand them from others and we demand them from ourself.

I want to challenge you to quick looking for the definition.  After all, I don’t think any of us are in the National Spelling Bee.  Be free to live.  Be free to learn.  Be free to work towards your strengths and be comfortable just being a work in progress.  Your job does not define you.  Your role as a husband and father or wife and mother (although hugely important) should not define you.  Your political stance, outlook on life, background, race, success or failure is not who you are.

So, what are you left with?  Who are you really?  If we strip away all the ways the world and others want to define you, are you anyone at all?  That is the real question. This is the question we must take time to ask.  We also must find the answer.  Allow me to provide you a place to start.  In the book of John, he gives us the first part of the definition: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe His name.” (John1:12) Don’t be defined by man.  Look up.