Dreadlocks, Your Dignity, & Jesus.
Remember what I told you? I have Anne Lamott on my brain.
From Traveling Mercies: "Dreadlocks would be a way of saying I was no longer going to play by the rules of mainstream white beauty. It meant that I was no longer going to even try and blend. It was a way of saying that I know what kind of hair I have, I know what it looks like, and I am going to stop trying to pretend it’s different than that. That I was going to celebrate instead."
Dreadlocks = dignity.
There is a huge difference between swallowing one’s pride and losing one’s dignity. I think it is critical not to confuse the two. You may have to swallow your pride, but you should never have to refrain from expressing who you are as a human being by giving-up your dignity. Anything that attempts to destroy your worth as a person is not of God.
What in your life is telling you not to be who and what God created you to be?
A major theme in Jesus’ agenda was the restoration of humanity’s dignity. Interesting how we find him defending the dignity of children and women from the prideful and powerful. Heck, he even compassionately restored dignity to prostitutes and tax collectors. You and I have immense worth to God, so much so that God chose to enter our world as one of us to remind us of who we are as God’s children. As a human being, Jesus may have died to pride at the cross, but his dignity lived. Even the unhealthy pride of the powerful was unable to kill his dignity as a child of God.
May we celebrate the "dreadlocks" in our lives.
3 Comments:
But we like conformity so much better! We don't want anyone marching to the beat of their own drummer, now do we!
It takes guts to redeem our own dignity and the dignity of others. Whether it is "dreadlocks" or touching the AIDS patient or standing up for the needs of "the least of these" it takes courage. I want to live my life with abandon. Running full force and not looking back. Dancing like David and sometimes...nearly drowning like Peter!
Thanks for the thoughts. You've got to be careful reading Anne Lamott, though. She will get stuck in your brain and you'll never be the same! ;)
Amazing how we'll trade in that highly esteemed dignity for the latest and greatest thing to fill in the void in our life's. We either forget, don't know or don't believe that the Almighty holds us in such high regard. I know that that is something that I simply can't wrap my mind around. It doesn't make sense and I suppose that it never will on this side of eternity. Maybe this is the largest part of faith?
'What in your life is telling you not to be who and what God created you to be?'
The sad part is that the thing that most frequently stands in my way is ME. I think the reality is that I don't want to be who God wants me to be; I'm afraid of who that person might actually be. I'm afraid of letting go of my illusion of control. What I really want is to be the person that I decide God wants me to be.
I can ramble on this at length, and did in my own blog, so I'll stop now.
Thank you for the reminder. I think I needed it.
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