Naturally part 4
The Popeye cartoon of old made a big impression on me. Not to the point that I would actually eat vegetables... because if that was the way to get big muscles, then big muscles I didn't need. And I can't really remember much of it at this point except for Popeye's catchphrase, "I yam what I yam!" Not to be confused with Exodus 3:14 (and I'm going to quote it from the Amplified Bible and then explain why), "And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM and WHAT I AM, and I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE; and He said, You shall say this to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you!" I am who I am and I will be what I will be. In other words, God was telling Moses--and His people the Israelites--"I will be whatever you need me to be." God is our provider. Our provision. Because God is love, and that's what love is--giving everything you have and everything you are. But back to Popeye. The thing about Popeye is that he was who he was. And he didn't try to be anybody else. Couldn't even if he wanted to. Which he didn't. He was a stuttering sailor and if you messed with the people he cared about he'd wind up that spinach-powered python and pop you one. No excuses. No apologies. What I remember about Popeye is that he was the realest guy in the room. And I've always appreciated that. I've always craved the real. I try to be an honest Abe, because I hate it more than anything when people lie. Its the living worst. And, if you want a really cool tie-in to what we're talking about, check out Ephesians 4:24-25, "And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speaking every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another." When we partake of the divine nature, or put on the new man, the first thing that is addressed is our speach. Probably because the word of a king has power. Probably because death and life are in the power of the tongue. Probably because what we say matters. And if sin is unbelief, then lying (or speaking anything other than the truth of God's love--and remember now, you don't have to use words to speak. All action is communication) is the first thing that needs to go. And if faith is knowing (and believing) the truth and living in faith, walking in faith, is our new nature... then its not about fighting with our old nature. Its about reckoning ourselves dead to sin--unbelief, the lie that we have to do in order to be--and alive unto God. Alive unto LOVE. The whole point of the whole thing is for us to have life, and that more abundantly. And not just any life, but Jesus' abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love! So, because God wanted us to have that--because He so loved us--He gave it to us. Gave Jesus to us. Gave His Holy Spirit to us. Gave Himself to us. So that we could, like Popeye, just be who we are. Just live naturally from the inside-out. Fill ourselves to overflowing with what He filled us with. Let God love the hell out of us and then love the hell out of each other. Give what we've got instead of trying to get something we haven't got. I yam what I yam. And that's good. Because I yam who God created me to be. I don't have to fake it 'til I make it. I can be real. I can really love, because I yam really loved!