HarmonySample

Harmony Within Oneself

“Harmony within Oneself” sounds like a lesson you might learn from Master Oogway in the Kung-Fu Panda movies. It is no surprise that your “sense of self”—your identity—is heavily influenced by the culture. On social media, in advertisements, and through the mainstream media, we are constantly told how to look, act, and believe. This bombardment lends itself to a turbulent sense of identity.

God, however, calls us to place our identity in Him, which means it is important to manage these influences as they come at us. The most important relationship in your life (besides your relationship with God) is your relationship with yourself. This is why it is essential to practice how you interact with your thoughts, feelings, and impulses, and to prepare for how you will respond.

Here is a common example of how this might play out: Recall a time that you stubbed your toe. Remember the pain or frustration you felt in response. What did you do? How did it feel? Did you get angry? Did you say a word you shouldn’t have?

When you think about it, stubbing your toe is a minor injury. Even if you broke your toe, you are aware the healing process is not as serious as with a broken leg or arm. In response, some people yell, some cry, and some do a silly jump-up-and-down dance to express pain. This is our way of acknowledging that what we experienced was not good. We do not enjoy the pain or discomfort, yet it is a key factor to our survival. Your body reacts to the stubbed toe by sending pain signals to your brain to tell you something is wrong. If your body did not have a response for injury, then we would be at much greater risk.

God was very intentional when He created humans. The Bible says that, unlike any other creature, humans were made “like Him” or “in His image” (Gen 1:27). This means that when we look inward at our identity, we don’t just see ourselves, but we also see God’s handiwork. We know that there was innate intention put there by a God who loves us.

God was very specific when He made you, and that helps shape who you are.

Just like the stubbed toe, we know that when we feel a certain way, it is the body trying to tell us something. Your nose is stuffed, you have a cold; your leg is bruised and swollen, it might be broken or injured. This can be true in the spiritual sense as well. Your spirit was designed to be in harmony with God. Through sin and through believing lies about ourselves, we have easily fallen out of sync with God. We should never forget, though, that we were created for a purpose and that we are loved. When our physical body experiences a pain point, it is a signal that something is wrong. When our spiritual-self experiences pain, we should also do some diligent searching to discover what is wrong.

Here are three ways you can begin this process:

1. Acknowledge the Disturbance

When something is not right within us, and when distressing situations occur, we might feel an immediate disturbance in our minds and even in our bodies. This could be unease in the pit in our stomach, a lump in our throat, or goosebumps on our skin. They might be accompanied by various thoughts and emotions which can be immediate and intense. The Psalms are full of people processing raw emotions like these. In Psalm 55, David cries out to God about how troubled he is. The Psalm gives us a healthy picture of how David doesn’t just wallow in his pain, he acknowledges it, embraces it, then gives it over to God so that he can be restored.

2. Analyze the Emotion

Once you get past the initial wave of emotion it is easier to take an objective look at what truly caused the distress. For example, consider an argument you may have had: Someone said something you disagree with, and you defended your point with a little too much passion and said something you regretted. After taking time to process the initial emotions you can look back at what caused the situation. If you were having a rough day going into that discussion, it is no shock that you would have been less patient and understanding than you usually are. Galatians 6:1-10 presents our calling, or duty, to examine ourselves and others so that we can be restored to one another. When we recognize what might be leading us to disharmony, then we can take steps to respond differently in the future.

3. Take Proper Action or Response

The final step is to respond to the disturbance. Once you have processed the emotions, you can figure out the best path forward. This is presented beautifully by Jesus in Luke 17: 3-4. Jesus says that the answer to disharmony is forgiveness. In these verses He presents exactly how often you should forgive someone when they have sinned against you: as many times as it takes. At the root of God’s relationship with us is that He forgives us, and so in response we should forgive others. But there is a beautiful flip side to how this applies to us: Jesus’s command to forgive does not just apply to what others have done to you, but also to what you have done to yourself! When it comes to “Harmony Within Oneself,” the key is to recognize and acknowledge that God has forgiven you. So, you need not hold those things against yourself either. If you are unable to rest in the forgiveness God has granted, you will never have a meaningful sense of identity. Your worth in God’s eyes is not based on what you have done, but in what He has done for you.

Discussion/Reflection Questions:

1. What do you feel when you think about yourself?

2. Is there anything keeping you from feeling close to God?

3. Is it harder for you to forgive other people or for you to recognize God’s forgiveness of you?

4. What would it feel like for you to view yourself the way that God does, as a forgiven and loved child?