I was thinking the other morning about trends and cliches. It made me smile to myself. In particular the way some things are in ‘fashion’ for a while, then something else comes in.
I’m not really actually talking about fashion, it’s more about things we say or are expected to say.
A couple of examples from my own life are when I was doing an access to nursing course, on the uni applications a common one at the time on your supporting statement was along the lines of ‘I like to keep healthy, as I firmly believe a healthy body means a healthy mind’. Even if it wasn’t true, you were expected to put something like it.
Another example is when I’d just finished my district nursing degree and we were going for interviews, when we were asked what sort of leader we were, we were expected to say ‘transformational!’ And go on to say why we were ‘transformational!’ Well, that sort of thing and expectation Just gets on my nerves to be frank. So I just refused to say the word transformational and said I was democratic. To which the response was ‘so you’ll let them walk all over you then?’ To which I answered a firm ‘no’.
Don’t we all talk rubbish sometimes, saying what people expect or want us to say because that’s the current buzz word or because we want to be accepted or whatever. It stops us talking truth sometimes. Saying it on its own means nothing. Doing it, fair enough,but saying it or being expected to say it just for the sake of it. Just no.
I got the job anyway. Quite a while ago now, but I did.
There are two sides to this for me, I both hate it and feel amused by it. This thing where you’re expected to say things just to tick a box, whether for getting a job or in everyday life. In other people’s assessment of you. Or also in our own assessment of other people I suppose.
We’re all different, we’re all unique, we’re all made by God and for God. We’re made to come to God and be changed by Him. From the inside out.
I’d love to just stop with the pretences we all seem to do in life and just accept and be accepted and just be free to be us and therefore be able to actually innovate and encourage rather than tick boxes. We might actually have some original ideas if we weren’t rigidly expected to fit norms.
I also firmly believe that the only true way to do this is to know and follow Jesus. That’s the only way we can actually get rid of the rubbish and masks and be free to be. And I don’t mean free to be as being as we like. Like rude or ignorant, or following ways that aren’t right. I mean being our best selves, the selves that God made us to be in the first place. With confidence because we know He made us and freedom because we know His love and forgiveness and the life that only He gives.
Anyway! Toodle pip. Bit random today, but interesting! My mind’s actually still working at this. Thinking about it.
Peace: one of the ways we feel peace is when we are able to come to someone and just be accepted, not judged, but loved. And that’s what we can do with God. He is the only person I know who I can be totally myself with, because He knows me inside out anyway and just loves me anyway. There’s no pretence with God. He loves me so much that this love drives me to say sorry for things I do wrong too. It’s an amazing love, unlike anything else we will ever know.
Really saying bye now! Bye!
Cathy.
The Shepherds Adventure 