“Accept Your Humanity”

There are many different ways to manifest the likeness of Christ.  Love, gentleness, joy and patience are some of the easy ones to name.  Have you thought about how Christ-like it is to accept your humanity?  That’s what the incarnation is, the Word of God became flesh; He accepted humanity with all its limits and finite capacities.  I confess that I have tried to live beyond my capacity from time to time, and I’ve been frustrated when my limitations made me hit the wall.  While our spirit will be around forever, our current bodies are mortal.  They are subject to age, disease and fatigue.  I know people that have taken “uppers” in an attempt to transcend their human limitations.  Drugs do work—for a while.  When the crash comes, it is not pretty.  Accepting our humanity, including our eventual death is not only healthy for our body and soul, it is like Christ.  We can’t do it all.  We can’t be all things to all people.  We can only be in one place at a time.  Eventually, as Solomon wrote, “the silver cord will be severed, the golden bowl will be broken; the pitcher will be shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well.”  In my stroll through the Mall on February 14, I noticed a store called “Forever 21.”  No doubt named by some humanity denying, age defying guru who will wrinkle up like the rest of us.  I thought to myself, “Good luck with that!”   Instead of clinging to what we looked like at 21 and trying to do what we did at 21, we would be a lot better off working on the part of us that will last forever—the inner life.  Jesus gave us the Spirit and the Word to develop the part of us that will last forever.  He will also give us a new body one day for our forever kind of life.  Don’t get too preoccupied with overcoming your humanity—Jesus wouldn’t approve.