Self-Made

2 min read

“For in [God] we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:28a

Hi. I am Self-Made.
I did not grow up rich
I did not inherit any money
I did not win the lottery
I never received any handouts
I worked hard, tirelessly
I showed up earlier
I left later
I made my way to the top
I decided where I wanted to be in life
I brought myself there
I am Self-Made.

[…]

You didn’t take me literally, did you?
I obviously couldn’t have actually made myself.
I simply mean that I took the cards I was dealt
and transformed them into the person that
you see in front of you today.
Therefore, I am Self-Made.

[…]

Well, no…
I did not form my brain nor my body
Nor choose the hue of my skin
Nor decide my height
Nor pick my parents
Nor determine what year I would be born
Nor what country I would be born in
Nor give myself any of my natural talents

Wait a minute. Let me take another look…
Did any of these just happen by chance?
Am I walking around thinking that I’m better
based on things that I had no part in composing?
Do I really believe that each breath that I take is owed to me?
I didn’t even have the ability to choose
whether or not I would be born.
Come to think of it, it appears that I have very little to do with where I am today.

Wait a minute. Let me take another look…
What is self-made?
I define myself as being self-made, because I have
overcome apparent obstacles without
evident advantage to achieve success or status.
Shouldn’t I?
Am I not the one that put in the hours?
Am I not the one that put in the blood, sweat, and tears?
Am I not the one that worked through school,
took the tests, studied, perfected my art, refined my craft?
I played a part!

Shouldn’t I be proud of where I came from?
My family?
What I look like?
My culture?
My intellectual acumen?
My talents?
Although these things were all… gifts.

Free gifts given to me that required no payment or merit.
I guess that would make me Grace-Made.

My gifts weren’t even given to benefit myself,
although they often do.
Grace-made.
The only self I have made is the one I don’t like to talk about:
the self who is greedy,
the self who has an unquenchable thirst for position,
the self who needs to be right,
the self who mistreats and thinks negatively toward others.
And yet God allows me to see another day…
another day full of people just like me who think that they are responsible for their lives and triumphs.
Grace-made.

So it appears that the more I am self-absorbed,
the more I exhibit pride, the more I sin…
the more grace is required to cover me.

“What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin,
that grace may abound?
God forbid.”

I am not Self-Made
I am the Created
Designed by a Creator
I am an Image-Bearer
I am a Gospel-spreader
I am Grace-Made

From Self-Made to Grace-Made.
Thank You, Jesus, for Your grace.

-

“What do you have that you did not receive?
If then you received it, why do you boast
as if you did not receive it?”

1 Corinthians 4:7b