To Know Yourself

Despite the fact that her past plastic surgery spree nearly killed her, Heidi Montag said she was open to having more.

I didn’t know who she was until I read the article.  But this 23-year-old reality TV star said that she almost didn't wake up after the 10 procedures she had in one day.

Montag's procedures included a mini brow lift, Botox, nose job, fat injections in her cheeks and lips, a chin reduction, liposuction to her neck, her ears pinned back, buttocks augmentation, liposuction to her waist and thighs and breast augmentation revision.

Why?  Why would anyone do that?  Montag reports, “I was made fun of when I was younger, and so I had insecurities, (she wants to be liked) especially after I moved to L.A. People said I had a "Jay Leno chin"; they'd circle it on blogs and say nasty things. It bothered me. And when I watched myself on The Hills, my ears would be sticking out like Dumbo! I just wanted to feel more confident and look in the mirror and be like, Whoa! That's me!"

What’s wrong with that picture?  Plastic surgery is a multi-billion dollar industry.  Now don’t get me wrong, it does have its place.  I am thinking birth defects and injuries.  But that’s not where the real money is being spent.

Sometime back I watched an expose on plastic surgery here in Dallas.  This young mom who had had several procedures done herself had brought in her 16 year old daughter to have her nose fixed.  This young lady was a doll.  I’m wondering fix what?  What are you doing, mom?

Do we know who we are?  Our relationship with God is intricately connected to our own self awareness.  The apostle Paul said, we are to put off our old self . . .  and put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

We are challenged in Scripture to shed our old false self and live authentically as our “new true” self.  What is that about?  What does that mean? 

In A.D. 400 Augustine wrote his great work, Confessions.  In it he writes, “How can you draw close to God when you are far from your own self?”  He prayed, “Grant, Lord, that I may know myself that I may know thee.”  What is he saying?  He is asking God to help him to know himself, who he was created to be, his true self, in order that he may know God.

Meister Eckhart, a Dominican writer from the thirteenth century, wrote, “No one can know God who does not first know himself.”

Teresa of Avila wrote in The Way of Perfection: “Almost all problems in the spiritual life stem from a lack of self-knowledge.”

In 1530 John Calvin wrote his great work Institutes of the Christian Religion.  In that work he writes, “Our wisdom . . . consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.  But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other.”

The lack of self-knowledge stifles our understanding of God and therefore our spiritual growth.  May God grant us the eyes to see our true selves that we might then be able to see our true God more clearly.

Worship

When God looks down on our churches to take in our praise and worship what does He see?  What does He experience?  Does He see a body of thankful hearts united as one glorious choir singing praise and worshiping His Holy name?

Or, does He see half the congregation standing with their arms crossed, their mouths closed and their teeth clenched because they don’t like that song or that style?

Let’s not forget that when a church sings to the Lord they are not the audience, they are the choir.  The purpose of the praise and worship is not to bless the participants or make us feel good. There is nothing wrong with enjoying worship.

Yes, we feel good when we worship in the Spirit, but that is a side benefit.  It’s not why we worship.  The purpose of worship is to bless God’s heart, to put a smile on God’s face.  The only question that matters is how does our worship make God feel?  Do we bless His heart?

Psalm 103:1 (NASB-U)  Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name.

If we come to worship only for what we can get out of it, then we have shifted the purpose of worship.  To some extent we are saying, “Worship me; pay attention to my needs; focus on me.”  But that’s not the point.

When the music is over and the benediction is given, if God doesn’t applaud, then we have failed.  Unless God says, “well done,” we haven’t worshiped and blessed His heart.