January 9, 2011

  • Sunday Devotional: Fasting from your Strengths

    I finally decided to take down my ugly profile picture, which I had put up after a random conversation with a Xanga friend. Here, in all its glory, is that photo one more time, with Seedsower's added photoshop:
     
    It makes me look stupid and fat. It was annoying at times to have that as my profile picture. I fully expected to be blocked outright for posting on some newer Xangas with that profile picture, ha, given the bad first impression it gives. But I kept it up anyway. Why?

    I feel that sometimes, we get tempted to play to our strengths all the time. If we're smart, we intentionally make each conversation about who knows the most, then back the other person down and walk away smugly. If we're beautiful, we try to overwhelm people with our good looks as soon as we walk in the room. This is the point where you should tell me "But Greek, you're not handsome!" and I would concur, ha. But still, on a good day, with a carefully chosen profile picture, I can pretend that I am rather dashing and charming:
       
    And it's tempting to pretend that yes, I look that good all the time. I wish I could get your respect and admiration without working for it, just by being handsome or charismatic or witty. But that want has a pull to the dark side, when we want to substitute charisma for true character depth, and to take shortcuts to what we want. I am not quite suggesting that we intentionally hide our gifts. But I am suggesting that sometimes, we need to live life without our strengths.

    One does not need to resort to the dictionary each time one feels intellectually challenged, or to the make-up box or studio each time one feels inadequate. Sometimes we need to intentionally live life with one hand tied behind our backs. It helps us develop our other skills, and it frees us from worshiping or worrying about our strengths. Please think about it.

Comments (31)

  • yes..I agree..sometimes we should live without our strengths..I mean, some people just receive attention etc. due to looks and other minute things..The real reason people should be drawn to us is by our hearts..:) I think it would be cool to have profile pictures that aren't ourselves and see what people act like then :) :)

  • That's, in a way, part of the reason that I shaved my head awhile back. Not that my hair is one my gifts or all that beautiful, but it still was something to "hide behind" in a way. And taking it away made me develop my beauty of a different sort.

  • Heh... I wish I didn't relate to this. All of my life... I've hidden behind my academic experiences; now, I hide behind the M.S. next to my name. It is my strength... and yet I flaunt it so that others won't see my weaknesses as much. You've given me food for thought, Greek... though I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with the thoughts!  

  • *Like*

    Keeping up appearances in trying to impress and look good is stressful and draining. Admitting we are nothing and have nothing apart from Christ is humbling and so freeing!

  • Interesting. I agree mostly. I think that it is important to know how to balance your strengths with your weaknesses. While having strengths, being aware of them, using them with others is not a bad thing, how we use them makes all the difference. I do think that we should also be aware of our shortcommings and work on them to develop our other skills or virtues that may hae been ignored because of our focus in our strengths. Our strengths and our weaknesses are always going to be with us so it is best to learn how to balance them and use them appropiately. Good blog. Like it. I am sure that Photoshop can work wonders on anybody's picture. Why I could look like Jennifer Lopez if I was Photoshop or Computer savy.

  • @freebirdheart - That would certainly be a good experiment...

  • I was actually just thinking this very thing on the way home from work, hah. And yes, I agree.

    Whenever I start feeling too smart, I start thinking about math. I suck at math. I failed college algebra. I don't even like doing basic computations without a calculator. Chemistry? You've gotta be kidding me. Unless you have a poem that might sum up the general spirit of the chemical composition you're describing, don't bother telling me about it; it's all Greek to me. (No offense. ;)

    I used to date a guy who was very athletic. He gave up a lot of his academic time for his sport. And he used to tell me all the time that I was too smart for him. But y'know what? The boy was a genius at hockey. He was fast, reactive, steady, and crazy accurate. My brain doesn't work nearly as fast as his. He was no less smart than I merely because of the tally of books we've read.

  • Oh, also -- not to blow up your ego, but yes, you are dashingly handsome, even when you're being slouchy and silly. ;)

  • Alec has picked a picture of me and Ginger to put on his desk that I think makes me look absolutely horrid. I am printing it anyway. Why? Because it's what he wants, and the fact that he thinks I'm beautiful even when I don't makes me that much happier!

  • @RaVnR -  A past admirer of mine thought I was cute even when my hair was messy curly or other things were wrong. It was so endearing, and I adored her for it. It really takes off the pressure when an admirer can find beauty even in our weaknesses!
    @The_Innocents_Corner - So well said about the hockey guy! I think we forget the smarts needed to work well with one's hands, or to react quickly. I wish I had such skills myself. And thanks for the compliment my ego appreciates it, haha.
    @lauralen - I notice that you sometimes intentionally hide your strengths. It is something I admire about you; you find ways to be interesting and strong even in your so-called weaknesses. Sometimes, I wonder if you're too good at hiding your good qualities.
    @freebirdheart - It is tricky to let our hearts shine through, some of us would like to hide what is there, ha. But I have found that some of the best Xangans are the ones who deliberately will not put a profile picture up, even though they are very beautiful.

    @Passionflwr86 - ha. You know me by now, I like to give tough food for thought!
    @naphtali_deer - We cling to every single ego-boost we can, don't we?
    @Blessed_Enigma - ha, now I need to learn to use photoshop so I can look good! great idea! jk

  • @GreekPhysique - Or...look better, depends on the perspective. Remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

  • Excellent food for thought. I actually puzzled over this and wrote/rewrote three different comments... all with very different thoughts in them. The following are not my final thoughts... but I made myself promise not to delete yet another comment before posting! haha

    I will settle on this - though i suspect it strays from your intentions. Or maybe it proves your point - I'm not sure. Sometimes our weaknesses are such that they cannot be embraced by someone who does not already have a degree of personal investment in us. Sounds like a dirty trick to lure someone in with our strengths before we introduce them to our kinks. But I think that sometimes in order to understand those weaknesses and see their value, you need to first have a solid grasp on the things that make that person amazing.

    I kind of think the complexities of these typical social interactions and blooming relationships are what makes them so fascinating and beautiful. It's like the unfolding of a mystery... we can never take anything at face value.

  • Perfect Sunday morning reading:). Thank you. appriciated this post. have spent an inordinant amount of personal time picking which pictures to post myself...anyways, also so happy to have made your "Secret Xanga Reads" :) . Sitting in sunny Brazil right now...i can't wait for posts to happen. It is nice to get your xanga posts to my inbox...any way i could do that for a couple other people? and the teachers blog?

  • Well put, I guess I should show more of my strengths, but sometimes it is not worth doing. 

  • Very interesting. It's hard putting those strengths aside. I have been, as I am sure most people have, in group situation where I knew my strengths would do nothing for me so I just sat back and watched. For a moment, I had flashed back to that awkward teenage feeling. The slightly nerdy kid being with the cool kids. Although that feeling is so uncomfortable, I know a learned a lot. Why is it so hard for us to push outside our comfort zone's and explore our weaknesses?  It's not really that painful to do.

  • @GreekPhysique - But see...if I flaunted my strengths all the time, everyone would just be jealous and feel so bad about themselves...I mean....

  • Nicely put :)

  • great entry, sir. 

  • @rwinzeler - I think that if you look on your profile under settings, you will see option to get your subscriptions emailed to you. Try http://edit.xanga.com/editaccountsettings.aspx and look at first two choices, should do it. 

  • I need to be more humble. 

  • good post...i've actually been thinking about
    this a lot lately. when you know you have a strength it is hard
    sometimes to not flaunt it, or to feel like that is your only good
    quality. i think a lot of it has to do with pride. at least, it does for me.

  • ahahahaha...what an excellent idea.  Living life with one of our hands tied behind our back.  This must be what I was thinking, subconsciously, when I gave up social drinking for 2011.  I'm a social imbecile when sober.  EXCELLENT!

  • Good post.

    Was there someone else at that other straw? lol

  • @Like_A_Tigah -  players never tell. Let's just say I didn't have a self-timer on my camera.

  • Great post, john!
    I meant to tell you how proud I was for you doing that, but with everything going on, i got behind

  • Greek, I haven't talked to you in forever... but I'm growing from my pains, which have turned into Strength. :) Recently, if anything... Miss you J... Let's talk sometime? 

  • btw, you ARE handsome. Quit with this whole modesty shit. I'm sick of it. Accept it already. 

  • Excellent post! I couldn't agree with you more.

  • I'd tie my arm to my back but I can't stand it when it falls asleep. 

  • sometimes, too, our strengths are taken away from us without notice. and if we rely fully/only only on our strengths to get us through, in those moments we're going to realize how weak we really are.

    ex: when i tore my acl in my knee and had to sit out my senior year of sports... sports that in many ways were what defined me... they were what i loved, what i worked towards, what i desired to excel in, and all of a sudden things that no longer had the ability to do. shook my world.

    what i currently struggle with... kinda touchy subject for me... but at 25 my face is having some of the worst acne breakouts of my life. i'm used to being comfortable in my skin and now my confidence is fake. i'm having to learn to have confidence in other things than any "looks" i possibly have. it's hard to have something in your appearance change for the negative and still have to go about your life like nothing has changed. i know that many other people have worse things happen to them than adult acne. but still. it's been kinda a big deal to me. :)

    and that's my 2 cents.

  • @zynverwex - A Chandler comment? My day is complete! jk. On a serious note, though, I still remember how bad it was when you hurt your leg. I'll also remember what Christ-like patience you showed in the middle of that suffering. It was very endearing, and I was quite impressed.

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