Scream “YES”
Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. (Isaiah 12:2-3)
I am thrilled God exists and that I am not God. The rest of the earth’s population should also be pleased I am not God. Why I am so glad to remain a humble human is because I would keep trying to improve my world. God is devastated this world is imperfect. While I do not believe we can take the Adam and Eve story literally, I do think the story speaks to a larger truth. Somehow, God gave us free will, and we humans didn’t appreciate God’s gifts and being, so we chose to ignore God and make our own decisions.
One of the character traits God possesses is an understanding of our best interests. The Divine One answers our prayers. Often, what we are asking for is not in our best interest. It wasn’t when humans evolved, and it is often problematic for us today. Yet, God did not kick us to the curb and start over by destroying us. Instead, God works with us through the movement of the Holy Spirit. God continually forgives, heals, and restores us. It is our call to forgive ourselves to heal and be restored. Only then are we capable of fulfilling our divine calling.
I love the last verses of Raymond Carver’s poem, “Rain.” Carver responds to life’s tricky question by asking, “Would I live my life over again? Make the same unforgivable mistakes? Yes, given half a chance. Yes.” Carver isn’t condoning poor lifestyle decisions but affirming that some of our best learning takes place from evaluating our mistakes. If we lived the perfect life on this earth, would we appreciate God’s love, forgiveness, and healing as much? Without mistakes, even the bad ones, would we be as faithfully mature as we are now?
Today, prayerfully ask God to wipe away our shame, so we can honestly look at our mistakes and learn from them. Shame impedes our ability to accept God’s gifts. God deserves our best selves. God chose to receive us, warts and all, guiding us to become what God originally intended. Let’s not deny God again by thinking too little of ourselves. Saying “yes” to yourself is saying “yes” to God!