Relational.
We humans, men and women, are relational to our core.
If we’re completely honest with ourselves, we never want to really be alone.
When we think we need to be alone is the exact moment we actually need love to creep in and tell us otherwise. Because when we think we’re suppose to be alone we start to hear we’re not worthy to be with, we’re not valued in, we’re unloveable, and we’re not good enough. (Which is so not true.)
Now I’m not talking about healthy introvert time. For as much of an extrovert that I would claim to be, I’ve learned that time alone is healthy and needed! I’m not talking about our quiet time with the heavenly Father, either. Intentional times of solitude and reflection are needed too!
I’m talking about the alone that leads to feeling lonely. When friends invite us over but we aren’t having a good day, when we make ourselves unavailable behind a calendar so full of to-dos there isn’t a minute to engage, when we weren’t invited to the friend’s party, or we aren’t treated fairly by coworkers, or a boy or girl breaks our heart, or we aren’t the best player on the team, or we can’t keep up with every ridiculous standard of the world.
All of these situations can send our minds into a downward spiral of elaborate-story-making if we let them. Stories that before we even know it end not in a fairytale, but rather a lie- we’re suppose to be alone. We don’t fit in. We aren’t (you fill in the blank) enough.
And I want to -right now- challenge you to
Stop believing that you are anything less than
Loved
Fought for
Pursued
Wanted
Delighted in
Set Apart
by the Creator of the universe!!
And when you feel less than any of these, the relationship you ought to look to first is that of the author of relationship.
the one who calls us sons and daughters.
The Father who ‘loves with an everlasting love…and drew you with loving kindness’ [Jeremiah 31:3]!
You were born to be loved!
Loved by a love that is greater than any lie the world has you believing.
We were all..
BORN TO BE LOVED!
And this may sound ridiculous to someone.
But sit with this and actually pursue believing this with your whole heart. When you do- I believe you’ll stand to tell the whole world, or at least the people around you, they were born to be loved, too!
And the reason isn’t because of anything we’ve done or are going to do, but it has everything to do with what God has done, does, and will continue to do for us.
Now for the backstory.
I met a person this month that showed me this is something worth saying and the world needs to hear this. It’s something I needed to hear, too.
Meet Ding Dong.
A native to the island we lived on this month is Malaysia. He was married for 4 years when his wife decided to leave him because he wanted kids and she didn’t. He struggled with alcohol abuse for years. In fact, there was a time tourists started calling him Ding-Dong, and he’s been ‘Ding Dong’ ever since.
To my surprise he didn’t want to go by his birth name.
He didn’t even want to share his birth name when I asked.
Over the course of the few weeks I got to spend time with him and as hard as it was for me to understand why he was choosing to be called Ding Dong…
it clicked!
He heard it enough, that he actually believed THAT is who he is.
He heard the world telling him who he was suppose to be, and not the truth of who he was created to be.
He, in his own downward spiral of a story, thought Ding Dong was who he had to be.
And I sat in a little plastic chair,
under a tree
beside his burger stand
broken inside.
Thinking about the years and years I allowed the world to call me so many things, and I believed them.
Thinking about the weight of those days.
Thinking about the confusion and restlessness those names carried.
Thinking about where I once found my identity in who the world said I was suppose to be rather than knowing the truth of who God created me to be.
Broken, because quite frankly,
Ding Dong actually believed he was a ding dong.
(Which by his definition is crazy.)
And what I wanted to tell him in the moment, but couldn’t because of how heated my blood was, was this…
Ding Dong, I’m crazy too.
I’ve made mistakes, and I’ve been given names by this world too.
In fact, we’re all crazy.
We are all messed up.
We were actually born a mess.
We were born into sin (thanks to the fall, Genesis 3).
Adam and Eve were manipulated by the father of lies, who continues to try to manipulate us with the same lies, day in and day out.
He tries.
But only with his words.
Words that only have the power to tell us who we are if we let them.
Words that can be demolished by the W O R D (2 Corinthians 10:3-4).
In the mess, the crazy, the mistakes, the lies there is some super good news.
God loves you so stinkin’ much that he sent his only Son, Jesus, to bare the pain and ruthlessness of all of our crazy messes so that we could stand completely forgiven, righteous and blameless before God (1 Peter 2:24).
Jesus cleaned up our messes before we even knew we were a mess (Romans 5:3-9).
And when the world tells you that your crazy isn’t okay, Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven (Romans 8:34), having stomped on the father of those lies, smiling straight at you saying ‘you are not crazy, you are my child whom I love’. (Galatians 4:5-7)
Why did he do it?
Because He believed you were worth it,
He believed you weren’t meant to ever be alone,
and you were born to be loved!
Ding Dong, you were born to be loved!
It didn’t take me long to see Ding Dong’s heart. A heart that I believe is in a very similar place to so many people in this world. A heart that I am all too familiar with. A heart deeply in need of replacing every lie it has ever believed with the truth.
Truth that will set him free.
Truth that has set me free.
Truth that can set every heart free.
The truth that as a child of God you are…
Adopted into God’s Family [Romans 8:15]
Fully known [Psalm 139]
Beloved [Jeremiah 31:3]
A masterpiece [Ephesians 2:10]
Guaranteed Victory [Psalms 18:35]
Bold [2 Corinthians 3:12]
Delighted in [Zephaniah 3:17]
Set apart [1 Peter 2:9]
Never alone [Deuteronomy 31:8]
Forgiven [1 Peter 2:24]
Washed clean [Isaiah 1:18]
And free [Galatians 5:1]
I wrote him a letter before I left the island sharing what the Lord put on my heart, and I believe he will come to know the truth. I believe there are other people in this world stuck in a situation, believing a lie, feeling alone, missing the truth and it is our responsibility to share it with them. The Ding Dongs of this world shouldnt believe they are crazy and alone. They deserve to know they are loved, and were born to be just that!
“As I have loved you,
so you must love one another.”
John 13:34
I challenge you to this question.
What would the world look like if every heart of every human believed without a doubt that they were born to be loved?
XOXO
Tay
