Good morning…
“I love reading your daily blog messages,” one subscriber writes. “So many of them resonate with how I am thinking and feeling.”
“As both you and your readers commented, so many of our hurt feelings are due to how we interpret comments of others,” she observes. “Our interpretations highlight our insecurities and expose our false sources of security. One of my examples relates to my insecurity about my appearance and my security with my intellect.”
She goes on to explain, “When I check out at the grocery store, I often automatically get the ‘senior discount.’ This not only enrages me, but it makes me think I look ‘old.’ I dare not ask what age qualifies one for this discount. On the other hand, no matter how hard another person argues with me from a different point of view, trying to make me think I do not know what I am talking about, I remain totally unscathed, I cling to my opinion, feeling completely secure I know best.”
Her honesty holds up a mirror, exposing us all. When our feelings get hurt, we cling to both our false insecurities and our false sources of security. The truth is two sided. Our intellect is not as secure as we pretend it to be, we do not have the corner on the market of “the one right way.” Neither are our insecurities based in reality, they are imagined, fabricated, made-up in our mind.
Still, what are we to do when our fragile feelings are hurt? Instead of grip harder to our make-believe control or disintegrating into self-defeating despair, might we let go, surrender, free falling into the constant care of our Creator, the only One who sees, knows, and understands everything? Shedding our natural tendency to cling hard when we are hurt, we release our grip, we open our self wide, and we witness God’s divine presence growing strong in our weak places.
“The runt will become a great tribe, the weakling become a strong nation. I am God. At the right time I’ll make it happen” (Isaiah 60:22, MSG).
…Sue…
