Developing Self Worth: Learning to be human again by enjoying daily simple pleasures

If there’s one thing I totally dislike, its to box up people. Standardization scares me. Whether its a school system that categorizes kids based on the number of correct questions they have or robots arranged in apocalyptic military fashion, I absolutely find boxing up humanity as a utter violation of basic human rights.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m ok with order, with competition, with meritocracy and with the need for some sort of structure. But when human beings are reduced to a mere number or statistic I grieve silently inside.

Someone once told me that if the devil can’t take away your life immediately, he tries to steal your time. I’m going to take that idea a little further, he often also takes away your worth, making you think your value is based on the sum of what you have.

And we often buy into that idea. Thinking that our worth is based on our achievements, our bank account, our friend lists…

God doesn’t see us that way. He celebrates our humanity and uniqueness. He loves that my friend finds sunsets her happy thing while I find great joy following the movement of a butterfly. He loves that maybe you find absolute pleasure in the weird ability to roll your tongue. He loves that I find wind blowing in my face exhilarating and sometimes surprises me with a gush of wind that puts a smile on my face.

Although all these things may not give a person any advantage in a job interview, they are part and parcel of what it means to be human. Yes, part of humanity is having purpose and higher function, but to be human is also to be able to find joy in simple everyday pleasures even when you are not particularly useful for the moment.

In the garden of Eden, God gave freedom to mankind to be. There were boundaries, there was purpose, but there was also the joy and uniqueness of finding your little turf of grass and smelling it. God enjoys us in our simple unique selves. God gives us absolute permission to be human.

Maybe some of us never understood that. Maybe we never saw that a child could be loved for simply being. Maybe we always linked our worth to our usefulness.

So today, why not stop for a while at trying to be that super effective, strong, efficient, useful human being and realise God created you and enjoys you as a human being.

Today, why not live again. Why not allow yourself the liberty to do something that is not going to work towards that big paycheck or great achievement. Gaze at the stars, splash at some puddles, scream at the top of your lungs (make sure no one is too near). Allow yourself 5 minutes to just be, realising that there is a great God of the universe who celebrates your uniqueness and you simply being human. Find your likes and dislikes, and then, if you will, gaze up to heaven and tell the Big Guy up there, thank you for making me uniquely me.