hope – Free Spirit Seed Company

The One Reason You Deserve Massive Respect

Imagine you take your car or truck to a mechanic, and just as you walk out, you notice something. On the floor is a towel with one of your favorite pictures of yourself on it. But people are not respecting it. They walk right across your likeness over and over, wiping their shoes on it as they go. Then you notice more. The cashier has begun cleaning the desk with another towel bearing the same photo, wiping up grease and spilled coffee. She sees the angst on your face and dismisses your concern with, “Oh, we go through a lot of those, about a thousand every three months. This place stays a mess. We always keep a bunch of boxes in the back.”

You would likely find that behavior rather offensive. It’s not because of the inherent value of the cloths, though. It’s because of whose image is on it.

Similarly, you and I and all humans deserve tremendous respect for one reason only – we bear God’s image. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). We have his photo printed on us, so to speak.

To say it a different way, everything good about you is part of God that He put on display through you. Creativity, love of music, healing the sick, and being organized are a few things that were present in God first, which he maybe now puts on display through you. That is precisely why you have those characteristics. We might say he created you so he could tell the world, “This is an example of what I am like.” Other good traits about Him – and you – may include being scientific, a good leader, a good listener, or a nature lover. He loves animals. He loves babies and little kids. He likes strength. Loyalty and honesty in friendship are high priority for him, and love is of utmost importance.

That is exactly why you deserve to be treated with dignity, and it means so many things for you. It’s ok for you to stand up for yourself (e.g., “Treat me with dignity or we can’t be close”), or even to leave an abusive relationship. Abuse is never how his image – you – deserves to be treated. Even if someone dislikes you, they still owe you dignity. Nobody gets to say or act like you are worthless or ‘less than’ or an unwanted mistake. Those are lies, because God and God alone has the right to define you, no one else. After all, he made you in his image, with his photo printed on you. We aren’t equal with God, but he did fashion us to portray him in many ways.

It’s ok for you to have an opinion because you matter. When someone cuts you down for feeling upset, excited, or any other feeling, they have made a grave mistake. That’s because God’s image deserves never to be insulted or invalidated. You reflect God’s nature by the good things in you, so nobody gets to tell you your feelings are stupid. Not all emotions are healthy to hold onto, and many should never be acted upon. But, you have the right to feel what you feel. Even your emotions are part of God sharing with the world a sample of what he is like, because he had emotions first. They’re part of Who He Is.

He wept, John 11:35.

He grieved, Luke 19:41-44.

He got angry over injustice and hypocrisy, Luke 11:37-52.

He felt joy, John 15:11.

He had compassion, Mark 6:34.

Everything good about you is God showing the world, “This is what I am like.” And that is why you deserve massive respect.

You may also enjoy Boundaries as an Act of Worship in Three Paragraphs, https://freespiritseedcompany.com/2023/03/19/boundaries-as-an-act-of-worship-in-three-paragraphs/,

and Everything Good About You is Part of God that He Put on Display Through You, https://freespiritseedcompany.com/2025/02/11/everything-good-about-you-is-part-of-god-that-he-put-on-display-through-you/

You’re Broken, Not Defective

You might be broken, but you’re not defective. They’re not the same thing, not at all.

You could think of it like this. You make a clay pot and put it in the kiln. When you take it out, the handle falls off, and the bottom crumbles. That’s defective. It wasn’t made well. It’s junk. You make another clay pot and it turns out beautiful. Then someone drops it on the floor. Now it’s broken. It was made perfectly, but later it got damaged.

That is me, and maybe you, too. Most importantly, it’s Jesus. Brokenness is something he, you, and I all have in common. He was perfect, but he got thrown on the floor and broken. He was abused, taken advantage of, and violated in the worst possible way. (See also
https://freespiritseedcompany.com/2022/01/22/2/)

He was broken — all the way broken — maybe just like you.

Your heavenly Father defines who you are, not your brokenness.

He was forsaken by his friends, beaten repeatedly, tortured.

But that is very different from being defective.

Your heavenly Father defines who you are, not your brokenness. Not other people. And not even you. He made you wonderful, the Bible says (Psalm 139:14). He is The Highest Artisan, and he personally handcrafted you, right there in your mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13).

Maybe someone lied and said you’re a mistake, an accident, should never have been born. I’m gonna be honest and say your Creator drew the detailed blueprints for you way before you were ever conceived. Before time began, to tell the truth. So no, you’re no accident. You have purpose. You should ask him to reveal that to you. It might be as simple as, “He put me here to praise him.”

A defective pot is worthless and useless. But a handsome, beautiful pot that has been shattered only needs to be put back together. He can do that with you, just like happened with Jesus. It’s his specialty.

“I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.” ‭‭Joel‬ ‭2‬:‭25‬ ‭ESV‬‬

That is an agricultural image. Picture endless miles of crops. Millions of insects descend on it, devour, and leave it in shreds. Maybe that is like many of the years in your life. It is mine. Somehow, he is slowly restoring to me ‘the years the locust has eaten,’ piece by piece. He’s putting my broken pieces back in place. It’s mysterious, but he can repay to you everything you lost, as he promised. Just keep following him, and don’t give up.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭17‬ ‭ESV‬‬
If he can make us from the dust, can’t he remake us, too?

“But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭64‬:‭8‬ ‭ESV‬‬

They Know

“And behold, they [demons] cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?””
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭8‬:‭29‬ ‭ESV‬‬

They know there is a set hour for their judgment, and that Jesus personally will carry that out. He will give them every last ounce of what they deserve. They aren’t in denial about it.

I eagerly await the day he says, “That is enough,” and they afflict us humans no more. We will never be tempted to fear, to hate, to resent, or to be prideful again. No more oppression. No sowing discord between people. No more lies. There’s light at the end of the tunnel. The last demonic deception will come and go, and that will be that.

He will unleash his wrath and torment those who tormented us.

These verses are not about the judgment of devils, but I think they’re still true about them.

Jesus is a Warrior. “The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name.”
‭‭Exodus‬ ‭15‬:‭3‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10‬:‭31‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Vengeance is mine, and recompense, [says the LORD] …For the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants…”
‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭32‬:‭35‬-‭36‬ ‭ESV‬‬

There is hope at the end of all our suffering because of Jesus (if we have a personal relationship with him now)! Pain will end. Peace will never end.

As the hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” celebrates:

The Prince of Darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo! his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers, [the name of JESUS!]
No thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours
Through Him who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also;
The body they may kill:
God’s truth abideth still,
His Kingdom is forever.

More Important than Loving God?

First off, you probably already know how Jesus summarized the most important commands for humans. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:37-40

So love God and love each other. What could possibly be more fundamental? Maybe: whatever empowers and motivates us to obey those commands. That, I think, is God’s love toward us.

“We love because he first loved us.”
1 John 4:19

You can be nice to anyone out of sheer will power, at least for a few minutes. But that is not why we treat our good friends well. We’re kind to our closest friends because it just flows out of us naturally. We don’t have to ‘try.’ In fact, we may even be nicer to other people when we’re around that friend because that’s just the effect they have on us.

Similarly, the more time you spend meditating or thinking about the love of God for you personally, the more you will find love spontaneously coming out of you toward God and others. Knowing he loves us makes love flow out of us naturally.

The only thing more important than receiving God’s love for us is Who He Is in himself. He, of course, is Love. “God is love,” I John 4:8.

This is good news for those of us who feel undeserving, because it recalibrates everything. Do you see it? Where is the focus when we think, “How could God love me? I don’t deserve it. I’ve done all these bad things?” Yeah, that’s what we say we are looking at ourselves. Which is why this verse is so great. When we look away from self to Father, we go, “Oh, now I get it. He doesn’t love me because of me. He loves me because of him.” Like when people say, “Well, that’s just the way I am.” And God is saying, “I am loving because that’s just the way I am.”

The very most important thing is Who God Is.

So, the more time and effort we invest into finding out what his personality is like, what makes him tick, the better we’ll understand why he has so much affection for us.

And the more we realize how deeply we are loved, the more it naturally transforms us into loving people. It takes less and less effort (although it still takes effort) and becomes more second nature. And that makes it a zillion times easier to love God and others.

When talking about God as our Father, sometimes I think of my dad — who happens to be a very good one — and I think how God is similar to him. But the other day somebody upgraded my thinking.

God was a Father before my dad was, right? So it’s probably more accurate to say it the other way around. My dad is a tiny bit like God is, rather than God resembles my dad.

Both statements are true, of course. My point is not to split hairs, only to say everything good we experience, if we get right down to it, originated inside God himself.

For example, the Bible says, “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” Romans 11:36. That would include trustworthiness and generosity for example. Humans didn’t invent those.

So if your best friend can be trusted and likes to give and share a lot, it’s kind of like God is saying, “I put this person in your life to show you a bit about what I’m really like.”

Or if somebody is merciful, he is saying, “Here is a little glimpse of what it’s like to be around me.”

All the good and delightful things we experience are peeks into what Father’s character is like. Each displays part of his nature that he’s invited us to dive deeper into. It’s all to draw us into closer communion with him.

Grief, I’m thinking, also shows a bit about what goes on in his heart. If he made us like him — “in his image” the Bible says in Genesis 1:26 — everything about us (except sin) would probably reflect part of who he is. Creativity … engineering … anger when people mess with your kids … writing poetry … jealousy if your spouse is cheating … laughter … love for great music. And grief.

I’m getting a little deep here, but I think grief is another way God is giving us a view into how he feels.

“Jesus wept.”
John 11:35

“And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”
Genesis 6:6

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God“
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4‬:‭30‬a

He’s letting us experience what he experiences.

How do you think he felt the day his Son died?

Loss is not necessarily good. But the ability to grieve over it is.

And the experience of grief is something God felt before we did. If knowing his heart is important for us, this is probably another way he is letting us ‘in,’ making us a little more like him. He felt all that we feel, and he felt it first.

We can say, “Jesus, I am completely devastated. I feel like my heart has been ripped out of my chest and crushed into pulp.” And he can say, “Yep. Me, too. Been there.”

That, of course, isn’t the whole story.

He is also the Party God. He invented succulent food, warm friendship, perfect sunny weather, children, lovers, laughter and comedy. When we enjoy any wholesome pleasure, he is again letting us feel what he experiences. Plus, if we consider what the Bible promises us in the next life (consider reading Heaven by Randy Alcorn), the real parties haven’t even started yet.

Suggestions on Finding God’s Will

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:1-2

Clues I see here include…

We must present our bodies as living sacrifices to God. That at least means living in a way that is holy and which God finds acceptable.
What drives us to do that is “the mercies of God.” (Why did he appeal specifically to God’s mercies to motivate us for holy living?)
We must have our minds renewed in a way that brings transformation.
We must not be conformed to this world.

None of those things are ends in themselves. They are means to an end, and that is knowing our Father intimately. Then it’ll be easier to discern his will.

It is very similar to someone asking you what your best friend wants for their birthday. You might say, “A Golden Doodle puppy,” or, “Anything strawberry flavored,” or, “Tickets to see this band play in London.” If they asked how you knew, you’d probably just say, “Because I know them. We spend a lot of time together.”

In our case, we are the ones wanting to know what God wants. And the way we can understand what he wants is by really getting to know him, by spending lots of time together.

The Hymn about Ink

Could we with ink the ocean fill

You go to the beach. Instead of water washing up on the sand, it’s black ink. Ships sail past in the distance, on top of it.

And were the skies of parchment made

You go outside in the morning to sip your coffee. There are no clouds, no sky blue, no orange sun. It’s a giant piece of paper so big it takes jets several minutes to fly across it, from the horizon on one side, all the way to the top of the sky, and all the way down the other horizon.

Were every stalk on earth a quill

Every single blade of grass in your yard (have you ever counted how many are in one square foot?), every stalk of corn in Kansas, every tree trunk in any forest — all of them are quills people write with.

And every man a scribe by trade

All 7.6 billion of us writing furiously, nonstop. Picture everyone in a packed soccer stadium with a pen and a bunch of paper all writing simultaneously.

To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

Though stretched from sky to sky.

“The Love of God”

by Frederick M. Lehman

Pretty Sure It’s Another Miracle

One of our children has had significant struggles with anxiety the past three years. It started with an illness, and has flared up in many different ways. They are under the care of a brilliant psychiatrist who has prescribed various meds, which have certainly helped.

After a recent unpleasant experience at the dentist, they’ve had panic attacks far worse than any before. They occur around bedtime and keep them (and their mama) up for an extra hour or two. Hyperventilating. Freaking out at trivial things. They have bad dreams about the dentist. If you have anxiety or are close to someone who does, you probably know we could go on recounting the stories for a very, very long time.

Then a couple nights ago, it lifted.

The panic attacks are basically gone, like they evaporated. This child usually meets me at the door happy now, instead of with the latest crisis.

Jealousy is being replaced with, “I’m so happy for them!”

This person has not enjoyed running around outside for several years. Now they ask if we can go for a walk as a family and they enjoy frisbee with their sibs.

And they are finally able to cry. Always they held the tears in, trying to be strong. Last night, for the first time, they cried when their sister was sad about our guinea pigs that died a couple years back.

That’s all brand new.

The Spirit about them is light whereas it used to be weighed down a lot, and they recognize this, too.

Two weeks ago they were terribly concerned about body image, afraid they would never get married and therefore never have children. Today they accept their body the way it is, and feel “content” with it.

We did not pray any specific prayers that night. They just woke up different.

Was this a real miracle? Sometimes people just change, you know. They’re tired of the hum drum and decide to step out in a new direction. People also morph into something beautiful when a kind word strikes home in just the right way. In other instances, an experience permanently changes our perspective. But I can’t find any of these in this story. I interviewed them, looking for such events.

Addendum: It’s been about a month now. We are still having some anxiety issues when life isn’t going like we want. But overall the panic attacks are resolved.

They don’t always meet me happy at the door, but it’s still noticeably different.

They still enjoy being outside and asked to ride their bike today.

They still cry, which again was totally new.

The body image thing went away and never came back.

Pretty sure it was a plain old miracle.

If you feel fearful about the future, me, too. I struggle with it every single day. Often it’s on my mind when I wake up before I’m even out of bed, frequently during the day, and when I lie down. Covid. Civil unrest, nationally and worldwide, politics, etc.

My stomach stays in knots. I get withdrawn and irritable when I’m afraid, which is a lot.
Sing-songy Sunday School verses and cartoon Bible stories profit me nothing when I am afraid like this.

“Everything that could be shaken was shaken, And all that remains is all I ever really had,” articulated Rich Mullins.

When I look around me, everything is shakable. My health, my family, my freedom, all of it.

Sometimes the world looks hopeless, which is a ghastly word if you think about what it really means.

The Sovereignty of God is my only Rock, the only fixed point in the swirling tempest. He has not made the suffering around me go away, but he is my anchor in the middle of it.

I have hope because *he* holds onto *me.* If you can get what I’m saying, God doesn’t help those who help themselves. He helps those who can’t. He helps me when my strength is zero. I am not a strong, rugged individual, an army of one. I am helpless.

‘For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.” ‘Isaiah 41:13

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. John 10:28

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10