Not just cookie cutter kitsch!

Romans 12:6-13

          It's said that we are a nation of people that strives for the best. Never to be outdone, we are always looking to one-up, do one better, be the best than we can be. **

          I go to the gym on a regular basis. I not a 'gym rat' or a 'no neck' by any stretch of the imagination, those people in my estimation are trying to be the best 'something'. They are buying into a paradigm that says the best body makes you a better person, more desirable or better looking. None of those goals fit with mine which is to make myself healthier and stronger in that it contributes to me being a better person as part of many other fine attributes.

           I think we are called to be the best person we can be but not to extremus, not one aspect overshadowing another and certainly not at the risk of demeaning others. Discover all of who you are, some of the attributes mentioned in today's passage, love who you are, embrace and share who you are. Those are goals worth working hard for.  When we love who we are we can offer others the great gift that God gave us and that we have unwrapped.

           Today I'd like  to honor Jeanne Manford who started PFLAG. If you don't know what that organization is, I urge you to explore and support it. But who is Jeanne Manford? She is simply a mother who embraced her gay son. She loved him, embraced who he was and celebrated it. Just as we should accept our talents, gifts and abilities, we should accept who we are and embrace it. Gay, Straight, Bi, white, black, Asian, Indian, whomever; embrace who you are. As Lola says in Kinky Boots, "I'm your cocoa butter bitch, not just cookie cutter kitsch! Be who you are and celebrate it, revel in it, love it. 

           You are a gift from God to everyone, not in embracing the whims, attitudes or judgements of society but be being exactly who you are with all your gifts and offering them up to your fellow man and thereby to God.

We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

** for a nation that supposedly strives to be the best we are far from it in almost every way. Lower in education, generosity, caring, forgiveness, and countless other Gospel based goals. We do excell in violence, hate, misinformation and waging war. :(