Do You Feel Fully Alive?

Do you feel fully alive?

I know that may sound like a strange question, but if someone were to ask you that question, what would be your answer?

Our culture gives us LOTS of ideas on how to be fully alive – especially how to LOOK fully alive. Think about the beauty industry. We are inundated with how we are “supposed” to look; basically how to NOT age. Maybe we think we’d be “fully alive” if we had a few less wrinkles or lost a few pounds. How many of us are fixated on trying to make our bodies look a certain way, when in actuality, maybe they aren’t MEANT to look that way?

I have been going through a few “body changing” books with Mazy this summer and when I think about it, what God’s original design was for us, is not what our culture is preaching. He desires us to embrace our ever-changing bodies, as we use them for His glory. But culture says to buy every serum, cream, or gel, in order to prevent wrinkles, dark spots, and aging signs. Count me as one of them…I currently have a bottle of a serum to help with hydration, aging, etc. In fact, Mazy bought me the one for at night, for Mother’s Day because she saw me looking at it in the store.

I’m not saying throw every bottle of anti-aging cream out the window. I think there is beauty in aging well too! God calls us to take care of our bodies, by all means! But in reading those books with Mazy, thinking about what the Bible says, and my call as a parent, what message am I sending? That I am only as alive as I look?

When we realize being fully alive doesn’t actually do with how we look, but by what we do with our lives, it changes perspective. To be able to answer the question about being fully alive, I need to believe that I am fearfully and wonderfully made, (just check out Psalm 139 for a reminder). We’ve been created on purpose, for this specific time of life, to minister to these specific people in this world, for this specific era in God’s Kingdom.

To be fully alive means to take what it says in the Westminster Shorter Catechism to heart: “To glorify God and enjoy him forever.” To make HIM known. To praise Him for the goodness we experience. May everything we do, be done for Him (1 Corinthians 10:31) because He is the giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17).

It’s easy to focus on ourselves, to think about what we don’t have, to believe culture that we can change the inevitable in aging, that we should change what we look like to fit the ever-changing pace of this world, in order to feel fully alive. But God’s answer for us is to embrace WHO He has created us to be, accept what we look like (I know, sounds strange writing that, but how many of us struggle with this), use our bodies to glorify Him, and ensure He gets all the praise and glory; not us. Living FREE actually means living for someone ELSE. And truthfully, that is the safest, most rewarding, most live-giving decision you could make.

So instead of throwing everything out of your cupboard, while you’re applying whatever it may be, start with praising God for who He has created you to be, your talents, your facial features, your eyes, and the unique gifts He has created you with. Because YOU are here for a purpose. Now, let’s go live out that purpose, FULLY ALIVE.