Christian Living

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I’ve always wanted to conduct a sociology experiment, one in which I put on a doctor’s coat and stroll about in public. Would that white coat generate more respect, more awe, than my usual run-of-the-mill attire?

People have encouraged me to try it, but I’m scared of getting busted. What if I was donning my physician-wear at the mall and an emergency arose?

“Doctor! Doctor! My wife is having a baby in the food court! Hurry, we need your help!”

What would I do? Panic, no doubt, like a former neighbor did when it became clear that his wife was going to deliver their third child at home. Running circles around the front yard and fumbling with his cell phone, he screamed, “WHAT’S THE NUMBER FOR 911?!”

That would be me, should my doctor façade crumble. Better to be my non-medical self and remember that Ephesians 4:25 instructs us to “put off falsehood and speak truthfully to our neighbors.” (NIV)

In other words, “Be yourself.” It’s age-old advice, though we live in a world that seems to encourage the opposite. Media, celebrities and the Jones’, pressuring us to “keep up”, send the message that we’ll be popular, happy and successful if we…

Walk this way, talk this way.

How do we deal with the pressure to fit a certain mold, especially one that’s as uncomfortable as a pair of jeans after a two-week taco binge?

I think it begins with defining who we really are, and 1 John 3:1 does it beautifully: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (NIV)

Yes, we’re children of God, thought-out and handcrafted. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. (Psalms 139:13-14, NIV)

1 Timothy 4:4 teaches that everything God created is good, but maybe we’ve wondered why He made us as He did. After all, it’s not like we grazed through a pre-creation buffet and chose our preferences. (“Hmmm, let’s see—I’ll take the musical talent and charming personality, but pass on the pre-disposition for thunder thighs.”) It’s God who filled our plates—and He knew what He was doing.

When God called Jeremiah to prophecy, He said, “before you were born I set you apart.” (Jeremiah 1:5, NIV) He did the same for you and me. Jeremiah 29:11 says that God has plans for us, and Isaiah 43:10 calls us His witnesses, servants whom He has chosen.

Sometimes, plans go amuck. Ever tried to bathe a cat? You know, then, what it’s like to work with something that doesn’t want to cooperate.

That squirming cat is how we present ourselves to God when we refuse to be the person He intended.

How can His plans for us unfold, and how can we effectively serve, when following a crowd or aspiring to images that don’t support who we are, especially if acceptance means compromising standards, suppressing talents or ignoring God’s call? How can we be happy when we go through life like me in a doctor’s coat—pretending to be someone we’re not, afraid that someday, someway, someone will expose us?

That’s no way to live, and it’s not what God created us for. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10, NIV)

Of course, it’s great to improve ourselves and tackle new ventures, but unless we stay real, we aren’t welcoming God to complete the good work in us that began when he made us. (Philippians 1:6)

Crowds split and go their separate ways. Images of what’s acceptable cycle in and out of vogue. God, however, never changes (Malachi 3:6) so let’s follow the One who truly knows where He’s leading.

“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.” (Isaiah 48: 17, NIV)

Hopefully, someone will decide they want to become like US and we can lead them to God, who will gladly accept them.

“He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17, NIV)

And that’s whether you’re dressed in a doctor’s coat—or no coat at all.


©Donna G. Morton, November 2005

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