You,
“Love
of Self”
I have not always agreed
that it is important to love yourself. In fact I have actively been against the
idea. This was ignorance on my part and another reflection of my unwound anger
at things. I thought there was something holy about self-evisceration. I was
wrong.
To be clear the love of self
is not selfishness. It does not mean that you think you are always right or
mostly right or that you live under the sacred sun of freedom when you
completely ignore the opinion of others and build a god-like fort around your own
life as a method of seeming progress. It is, however, not the extreme
acceptance of the opposite of all these things either.
The start is from what I sent
you yesterday, in a quote.  It begins
with the answer to the question of inherent value. There is much emphasis
placed on “letting our light shine before men” and displaying the “glory of God”
in our tin frame lives. This sort of duality, where we put our best foot
forward, and leave our other foot bleeding in the dark is not to be recommended
for wholesome living.
Inherent value is the start.
Inherent value says we are enough for God and that is enough for everything
else.
I know what you will tell
me. I know you will say that sin and slyness deny you this right to be
yourself. To live out as who you truly are. I will reply that you are wrong. That
the exposure to the light, as you are, is the only cure for darkness. It is God
who can heal the broken heart and it is God who can mold the crooked soul. The
one who can fix you knows all the places that are in need of repair in you and
does not hold back His love till He has fixed it all. He says, today is the day
of salvation. There is an instant love and the repair is over a lifetime.
So, we do not have to live
the fragile life of hating who we are. We are loved. We do not have to keep
thinking on how we said this and did that and how that other person must think
us dumb or worse. We are loved. We can stand in the light and take our medicine
and be honest about our flaws but still know that we are worthy of love. We are
already loved by the being who sees everything.

That value He sees must mean
something.