Sometimes I feel like a dateless seventh grade girl. Stringy hair, a mouth full of misplaced teeth covered in so much metal I can barely close my lips, absolutely no confidence in myself, so sure that everyone thinks I’m the lamest thing to ever exist on this planet. Sometimes I feel like that girl, so desperate for validation for my existence in the form of being asked for a dance. Because your mom can tell you how valued you are all day long, but when you’re in seventh grade you won’t believe you’re pretty enough, funny enough, (insert lie you tell yourself here) enough until someone asks you for a dance.
There are times when I feel like I’m still waiting there, trying to figure out what to do with my awkwardness while all of my friends are out on the dance floor. There are times that the dateless seventh grade girl in me wants so badly to be chosen for the dance. Let’s be honest, there are days the dateless 26 year old in me wants so badly to be chosen for the dance too.
I guess this blog post could be really awkward and embarrassing if it turns out I’m the only one who’s ever felt this way.
But I feel like a lot of us want to be chosen.
Because being chosen means you’re enough. Enough for someone to stop and pick you out of everyone else. It makes you feel valued. Special. I think most of us women, at some point or another, want to be chosen by a man. But I think we also want to feel chosen with our friends, families, at work, and in so many other life situations. It just feels good to be chosen.
Sometimes I crave feeling chosen a little too much, and I let that need dictate my emotions and my actions. But what I so frequently fail to realize is that even though I often feel like I’m just standing against that wall in the gym designated for the awkward kids, I’m not. I’m actually already dancing. Dancing with the most significant person in the room. And He tells me I’m enough. He should know, He created me. I’m already chosen, holy and dearly loved (Colossians 3:12). And unlike most dances, I’m not wearing an outfit that I’m sure I’ll regret 20 years from now. Because I’m clothed in salvation and righteousness. (The outfit was a present from Him. He gives amazing gifts).
Isaiah 43:1 tells me:
But now, this is what the LORD says-
He who created you, O Jacob,
He who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name, you are mine.”
I am His. Created to bring Him glory. Chosen and chased after, whether in the heavens or depths, on the wings of the dawn or the far side of the sea. (Psalm 139)
I’m already dancing. Already chosen. And so are you.
