To be human is a difficult thing.  Perhaps this is a striking statement for a human being to say, but I think it is true.  I honestly believe that to be fully human is the most difficult thing that we face.  To be fully human is to be fully in touch with everything that we are and everything we are not.  To be fully human.  It is a difficult thing indeed.

Perhaps the biggest challenge, particularly in this modern age in which it seems that we are all supposed to be something other than human, is to recognize precisely what it means to be human.  On the one hand, it means that we are made in the image of God.  We are spoken into being by God to be precisely what we are, and I think that it is also the very thing that poses the ultimate challenge for us as creatures.  To take being made in the image of God seriously means that we have to recognize that who we are is what God intended to speak into being.  It means that we have to find the strength to be exactly who we are as God created us, and it means that we have to find the strength to be more than just okay with that.  It means that we are asked to find the strength to be happy with who God speaks into being each and every day of our lives. Continue reading →