I am from Los Angeles. I am all too familiar
with black market and knock offs. Wait a minute- let me correct that. I am from
Orange County. I am all too familiar with designer labels and outrageous price
tags. But you ask me today where I am, it’s far from either of those places. I
am in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Being a few thousand miles from home you might
think things would be different. Sure there are ten times more motorbikes than
cars, rice is included in all three meals of a local, there are beautiful places
next to slums. I might be across the world, but there is this constant umbrella
above it all.
Counterfeit.
Black Market.
No matter what you have you want something
more, you want to be someone else. If you can’t afford the real thing you take
a trip to the fashion district in LA, or here in Cambodia, you buy something
anywhere. You see luxury labels on steering wheel covers, and designer labels
on classic tshirts. You see isles and isles of purses, shoes, clothes, and yet
none of it is worth it. At least, not if you are trying to have the real thing.
So are they trying to have the real thing? Do
they even know what the label is? Or to them is it just a bag, or a shirt? It
starts to make you wonder. In a place where trash sits along the roads, the streets
flood daily with rains and no sewers, and some are lucky to have clothes, do
they know they are going for a knock off, a pretend, a counterfeit of something
holding a high price?
How many see God this way? How many have a
counterfeit relationship with him? Do they really know the high price that has
been paid for our salvation and eternal life, or is it a simple prayer some
foreigner once told them to say? Is it a relationship where you think you can
pay $2 verses $80 like you did on that tshirt, but instead its 3 minutes
hearing a worship song over an hour in prayer and reading your Bible?
In Romans 12, Paul talks about personal
responsibility and with that how to hold yourself in this world.
“In his grace, God has given us different
gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to
prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is
serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift
is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If
God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if
you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. Don’t just
pretend to love others. Really
love them. Hate what is
wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection and
take delight in honoring each other.” (Romans 12:6-10, NLT)
Be who you are, who God has created you to be.
We have each been made in His image, to His perfect specification, to be exactly
who he wanted us to be. He did not make me just like you, and you not just like
the person beside you. He wanted you to be original, hand crafted, valued. He
didn’t make you to be jealous, envious, or desire what you cannot have. He does
not want you to become something you are not, to become something that is only
a representation of the person you truly are. He didn’t create you to be
counterfeit.
Be the real thing. Be the real you. Be the
person that a high price was paid for. Don’t settle for something sold on the
back alleys, but become something that is of purity and genuine material. And
don’t let your relationship with Him become anything less… He is worth more
that we can ever imagine, and yet has given Himself to us free, paying the debt
in our place. If anything should be paid in full, that’s it.
