“God made you to flourish…”

A thought by John Ortberg from his book, The Me I Want to Be (p. 14). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Here is the whole thought.  John says, “God made you to flourish — to receive life from outside yourself, creating vitality within yourself and producing blessing beyond yourself.”

He goes on, “Flourishing is God’s gift and plan, and when you flourish you are in harmony with God, other people, creation, and yourself. Flourishing is not measured by outward signs such as income, possessions, or attractiveness. It means becoming the person he had in mind in creating you.

“The righteous will flourish like a palm tree.… they will flourish in the courts of our God.” (Psalm 92:12 – 13)

John then says, “As God helps you grow, you will change, but you will always be you. An acorn can grow into an oak tree, but it cannot become a rose bush. It can be a healthy oak or it can be a stunted oak — but it won’t be a shrub. You will always be you — a growing, healthy you or a languishing you — but God did not create you to be anybody else. He pre-wired your temperament. He determined your natural gifts and talents. He made you to feel certain passions and desires. He planned your body and mind. Your uniqueness is God-designed.

“Some people think that if they seek to grow spiritually they will have to become someone else. But God won’t discard your raw material. He redirects it. Before Paul met Jesus, he was a brilliant, passionate zealot who persecuted people. Afterward, he was a brilliant, passionate zealot who sacrificed himself for people.”

He continues, “God doesn’t make anything and then decide to throw it away. He creates, and then if there is a problem, he rescues. Redemption always involves the redemption of creation. The psalmist says, ‘Know that the LORD Himself is God. It is He who made us, and not we ourselves.’

“Here is the good news: When you flourish, you become more you. You become more that person God had in mind when he thought you up. You don’t just become holier. You become you-ier. You will change; God wants you to become a ‘new creation.’ But ‘new’ doesn’t mean completely different; instead, it’s like an old piece of furniture that gets restored to its intended beauty.”

He later says, “It is humbling that I cannot be anything I want. I don’t get to create myself. I accept myself as God’s gift to me and accept becoming that person as God’s task set before me. Inside your soul, there is a battle between a flourishing self — the person you were created to be — and a languishing self. This book is all about that battle as it moves from deep inside you to a world waiting for God’s redemption.”

So, will you accept the you that God created you to be and let Him make you, you-ier?  Will you?

Yes, yes!