Contentment to Be Yourself In A World Who Wants Anything But…

…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Hebrews 12:1

What I’m saying is, If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face. But if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”
Luke 14:11-14TM

Do you fear being yourself? To be content with your gifts, talents, personality, financial status? Do you find yourself doing nothing because of fear of being rejected, or not getting what you want? Do you live with a feeling of “If I don’t get mine, no one will get it for me”? Do you look at others success, faith stories, and feel as though you have been given the short end of the stick? Do you fear failure, whether it be in relationships, business, or personal goals you have, more than you desire success?

A recent post I read labeled this fear, and pointed out the extreme hindrance it can have on our lives…

“Kiasu” is a mentality that has a literary meaning “the fear of losing”. “Kiasu-ism” has made lots of people focus on the fear of  losing, rather than the passion to succeed. Its an insistence on being competitive rather than making it without pulling others down. Its obvious that this is the reason why lots of people commit suicide even when they havent failed and they are only seeing signs of failing… Wikipedia has this to say “Examples of kiasu behaviour includes accumulating too much food on one’s plate during a buffet lunch in case there is no more later…

Imagine a church where you have bunch of kiasu people, unity there, will never have its course because there will be no brotherly love amongst its brethren; think of a family/home filled with kiasu-ism, independence will reign in place of family bond because competition will persist; If it then exist too much in a man’s life, his weaknesses will kill him before he discovers his strengths – perhaps thats why there are too many treasures unexploited before they were buried in graves.

How then can we deal with this mentality, take out competition from your dictionary and focus on your own race. How can you make it without pulling others down. Stop thinking about the consequences of failing before embarking on anything you want to do. Think positively; focus on your strengths and let you weaknesses die of negligence (hunger of the fact that you dont care about it). “Dont let the fear of losing kill your passion for winning” – Le dynamique professeur. Remember; Its your strengths that matters and not your weaknesses.

While men are competitive at Business, and golf scores, women have an entirely different motivational “Kiasu”. We fear our relationships, whether it be not having any or someone “better” taking them from us. We fear only being seen for what we do around the house, so we struggle to fit into molds we do not fit into. We fear our children not being as successful or not having as much as the other kid, so we dig into debt for that trip to Disney.

We fear rejection so instead of putting ourselves out there we judge, and condemn those who do. Instead of being ourselves, we attempt to be the person we think others want us to be and ultimately not finding fulfillment in ourselves, and not filling our God- given purpose to this world and the body of Christ. (Imagine, if Joyce Meyers had not been willing to be herself, but fit into the mold that others told her to fit into, “women aren’t allowed to minister” they told her. Imagine if Joseph had not been willing to be himself, he would have saved some rejection, but he and his family may have starved to death.) The challenge is to run your own race, and not look at the race others have been called to run. You know, you may very well be trying to run the race your neighbor is running, only to find out that they were running the wrong race too.

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. Phillipians 4:6-8, 13-14 TM