Fearfully and Wonderfully Made...Yeah, You!

Every now and then, I’ll meet someone who asks, “Are you the Mark Daniels who writes the column?” “Yes,” I answer.

Sometimes they tell me, “You are such a good writer.”

That always comes as a shock to me. I love to write. But I can think of only a handful of things that I’ve written in my lifetime that I like.

This self-critical attitude may incite me to pursue my personal mission, which I summarized a few years ago: “Using the communication gifts God has given to me, I prayerfully inspire and lead people to follow and live for Jesus Christ.”

But even to have written that statement was hard for me. While many people have told me over the years that I’m a gifted communicator, I find it difficult to accept.

That’s because ever since I was a little boy, I have wrestled with feelings of inferiority, of unworthiness. Back in my school days, it seemed that everybody else was either smarter than me, more athletic than me, cooler than me, or all three.

I carried these feelings into adulthood. Looking back over my first fifty years, I see how they have held me back. I see too, how they sometimes have led me to do wrong simply as a way of proving myself to the world or to myself.

In the Old Testament, a king named David spends part of a worship song, Psalm 139, asking God to show his sins to him so that he can turn from them and ask God’s forgiveness. David knew he was imperfect.

But without any arrogance, in the same psalm, David also marvels that God had created him so well. “I praise you,” he says, “for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

David wasn’t being an egomaniac when he wrote those words. He understood and acknowledged the first gift God gave to him: himself.

I need to be able to do that. Maybe you do too.

Maybe you have gifts and abilities for which you repeatedly receive compliments, but you refuse to believe in their value...or in yours. I can confidently tell you that God wants you to stop doing that!

A man named Zaccheus was so short that when Jesus came to his hometown of Jericho, he couldn’t see Jesus over the heads of the welcoming crowd. So, Zaccheus climbed a sycamore tree and got a good view. He was stunned when Jesus looked up into that tree, callled Zaccheus by name, and asked if He could come to Zaccheus’ house.

No wonder Zaccheus was stunned. He’d probably always wrestled with feelings of inferiority because of his slight stature. As a tax collector in those days, furthermore, he was an extortionist ostracized by the good religious people of town.

But Jesus, God-in-the-flesh, saw the possibilities in Zaccheus. That day, Zaccheus turned from sin and let the love and acceptance God offers through Jesus Christ begin to change his life forever. It’s likely that Zaccheus still wrestled with feelings of inferiority and temptations the rest of his life. But in Jesus, he knew that he had God’s approval and encouragement, the ability to become the best Zaccheus possible, and the second chances every one of us needs.

I’m thankful that God gives these same blessings to me. It’s still hard for me to accept compliments. But when I let God’s forgiveness and acceptance, offered through Jesus soak into my life, I can acknowledge God’s gifts to me and use them as God intended them to be used.

He can do the same for you. It begins when you turn away from sin and ask Jesus to be your God and best Friend.