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Sam Powell offers us a beautiful post, a teaching on the Song of Songs, called “I am Dark but Lovely.” Truth and beauty, well worth the read.
The Song of Songs is just a wealth of wisdom that never stops revealing truth to me. Just a bit past “dark and lovely,” comes “but mine own vineyard have I not kept.” Those words were convicting for me once because due to so many life circumstances, I was unable to keep my own vineyard. Those were powerful words for me to read becasue they taught me the importance of tending to your own vineyard, of putting on your oxygen mask first. We are called to love our God and our neighbor as ourselves. If we aren’t loving ourselves, we sure won’t be loving our neighbor either. Grace is a very reflective thing, the more you have received yourself the more you have to share and give away. We give from overflow and abundance, not from scarcity.
There’s something about the human spirit, always trying to earn our way, earn our grace, prove our worth and value. (There are also some these days who won’t even get out of bed, who feel entitled to everything,) but most of us want to be useful, to be desired, to be valued based on who we are and what we have to offer.
Somewhere in the kingdom there is this peace, this freedom that comes from surrendering all and availing yourself of grace, of unconditional love. It’s a place where service becomes a privilege, a gift you are honored to have been chosen to perform, and there is genuine gratitude about having been called to such a task.
I visit that place once in a while.
It’s a good mindset to have, not lamenting “why me” when things go awry, but declaring “why not me,” and praising God for seeing my worth and value and chosing me of all people, to walk through these circumstances.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
On the Internet this phenomenon exhibits itself when people come by just to tell you how much they disagree or agree. They often don’t actually explain, but they make certain you know how they feel. These take aim our ego and our heart, not our mind. Some to tear down. Some to build up.
As you say, we should care about ourselves because God loves us. Because of Him, we have value, but that understanding can comes slowly, if ever. Therefore, one of the cruelest things we can do is just tell someone we hate them and then enumerate all the reasons why, and perhaps one of the kindest things we can do is just take the time to do the opposite.
Still, the best thing we can do is to lead someone to the cross. Only God’s love is enough.
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“It’s a good mindset to have, not lamenting “why me” when things go awry, but declaring “why not me,” and praising God for seeing my worth and value and chosing me of all people, to walk through these circumstances.”
What a thought! I think too many times we are stuck in the “why me” mentality, especially when it comes to our struggles. We need to praise God for our triumphs and tribulations.
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Awesome post IB. =)
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