Be who you are. Because who you are is beautiful.

I have different playlists I listen to at various points during the day, depending on my mood. The one that I typically listen to on the way to work currently has a mix of worship, uplifting, and motivational music. Right now, one of the tracks on it is This is Me from The Greatest Showman. As I was listening to that song this morning, I was reflecting on the movie itself that I finally watched the other night for the first time.

And I realized that the reason I liked the movie so much was because it reminds me so much of my life and of the groups of people with whom I choose to invest my time: the misfits, the outsiders, those who aren’t enough, those who are too much, those who don’t quite fit in anywhere else.

I realized this is true of my church as well. Which is why I love it so very much. I’m not saying that the people there are misfits. Well, not everybody. ;-) In the movie, there is a point where the bearded lady, on behalf of the rest of the circus, tells PT Barnum that although many of their mothers had turned their backs on them, he had given them a family. That too is true of many in our church. There are people there who have been told by their families, or by society, or most sadly by other churches, that they didn’t belong. That they didn’t quite fit in. That who they were wasn’t compatible with Christian teaching. That they weren’t enough. That they were too much.

Which is exactly what my church does not say. It says God loves you and so do we. Come join our family.

Be who you are. Because who you are is beautiful.

As with PT Barnum, our church doesn’t try to hide the people or things that others don’t understand or are frightened of, but instead brings them out into the open and says come see.  Come learn. Come understand. Come love. And through that, God is glorified. Through that, God uses those things we see as weaknesses or failures or disabilities, to achieve things, and to bless others, far beyond what we can imagine.

Be who you are. Because who you are is beautiful.

We started several new small groups a few months ago, and my small group that meets on Sunday mornings is an eclectic and quite frankly hilarious group of people. We are on all places on the political spectrum. We come from a variety of different faith backgrounds. There’s a lot that we don’t agree on. Sometimes we get pretty vocal about what we don’t agree about. But we come back each Sunday and we walk this road of faith together still. We respect each other despite our differences. We respect each other because of our differences. We tease each other and we laugh at each other and ourselves and most importantly we love each other and we love Jesus. Our group name is Real People. I call us my favorite group of irreverent Jesus lovers.

As someone who at various times in life has felt like both not enough and too much, I am grateful to have found a place that not only tolerates me but celebrates me. Who loves me as I am and challenges me to use who I am to serve God in a way that only I can do. Who encourages me to let go of the things of my past that hold me back and to learn from and use the ones that will help others. Who loves and supports my family and me in all things, and in all ways.

And who says to all of us:

You are enough.

You are not too much.

You are perfect just as you are. Just as God made you.

God loves you as you are and how you are.

And so do we. Come join our family.

Be who you are. Because who you are is beautiful.

This is me. This is you. Flawed and imperfect in the sight of man. Holy and beautiful in the sight of the Maker.

“I am brave, I am bruised. I am who I’m meant to be, this is me.”

Just who we are. Because who we are is beautiful. Because God made us that way.