Okayness

"Where do you get your sense of okayness from?"

A few months ago a friend of mine challenged me to answer that question.

What is it that if you had it, achieved it, or attained it, you could look at your self and say, "I'm ok. I'm alright.  I'm acceptable."?

I believe we all have a myriad of possible answers to this question and that they will all fail to satisfy. Daily I'm confronted with the false fronts and hopes I'm placing my acceptability in, but I can tell you one clear path I've discerned.

Here's one surefire place of okayness.

In Mark 1, Jesus gets baptized. As he is coming out of the water a voice from heaven declares, "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

Again, the voice says, "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

Now, other Scriptures will tell us that those who put faith in Christ have been adopted by God (read: made his sons and daughters) and fancy theological words will tell us that those who put faith in Christ are looked at by God the Father in exactly the same way He looks upon Christ, God the Son.

So, when the Father beams at the Son and declares "You are family. I love you. I am thrilled with you." . . . those words can apply to you.  And me.

I know a lot of things that will fail to make me OK.

But I also know that the more this voice can be internalized, and the more this voice can speak into my mind and heart, the more truly OK I will actually feel and experience life.

"You are my child. I love you. I am well pleased with you."