It’s a general sense of feeling distant from the things that you know are better but just have a hard time stepping into. . .
On a small scale, it’s when you know you shouldn’t buy that bag of chips and dip and binge-watch the latest Netflix series, but you just don’t seem to have the necessary will to go and treadmill instead. Or on a bigger scale, it’s when you know that you shouldn’t speak that harsh word to your son or daughter because it won’t help anyone in the long run. Still, that sense of disengagement causes you to express your frustration instead of moving into something far more productive and nurturing.
Disengagement from better, more wholesome, productive and life-giving things...we all experience it, and we all sometimes feel helpless to avoid it.
Brene Brown, a sociologist and cultural observer, suggests this important idea to help us to overcome this ‘gap’ between what we often feel/do and what we should feel/do. She says: “We can’t give people what we don’t have. Who we are matters immeasurably more than what we know or who we want to be.” (Daring Greatly, page 176)
Who we are matters the most. Not what we have learned or what we think we know, but who we are.
And who we are is so much more than just the name we have and the accomplishments or influence we exert. ‘Who we are’ goes right down to the essence of what makes me, me.
Maybe the most important aspect of discovering who we are is found in those who have the capacity to create who we are. How long do you think that list is? In my mind, it stops right around .1. God made each of us. He desires that each of us find ourselves in our true identity, and that true identity is in relationship with Him.
And so Jesus makes a way back into real life.
When you admit that to Jesus, that you want more out of life that you can’t get on your own, then you begin to open the possibility of living engaged!
It says in Romans 8:39 that nothing can separate a person from the love of God. That is His fundamental attitude toward you and I. But, our experience of that love is hindered by the fact that we have disengaged from Him.
If you want to overcome that sense of disengagement in your life, then maybe it’s time to consider engaging with Jesus and letting His love transform you into everything you were designed to be!
Many blessings on you on your journey.
Pastor Brian Tysdal, Strasbourg Alliance Church
Disclaimer: opinions expressed are those of the writer.
