For most of us, to see is to believe. The thought never crossed my mind that I could come to love Jesus more than any other living soul on the planet until I saw someone cloaked in flesh and blood actually do it. Her name was Marge Caldwell. Until then, the whole idea was nothing more than a lofty theory we had sung about at church but hung on the coat rack when we headed to the car.
The thought also never crossed my mind that I could love the study of Scripture and get the thrill of my life out of hearing God speak through the pages of the Bible until I saw someone else do it. His name was Buddy Walters. Both of these living, breathing examples proved to me that something most Christians believe was theoretical was indeed really possible. And for normal people just like me. I wanted what they had, and bless God, I found it.
Most women will likewise never believe that a secure woman is a real, live possibility until they see one face-to-face. Problem-to-problem. Chase-to-grace. If you will become the first example in your sphere of influence, you won’t be the last. You may pop up all by your lonely self in the beginning, but soon another will pop up close by, then another, because it is as contagious as its counterpart. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if a few of those girls who popped up around you were 12 or 13 years old, with their whole adolescence and adulthood ahead of them? Anybody can be like everybody else. Only those who are exceptional choose to believe the possible over the probable. You, beloved, were created to be exceptional.
Like my friend Stacy. She’s a thirty-something I have known since her college days, a devoted follower of Christ and a fabulous makeup artist by trade. A few weeks ago she was at my office to help me get ready for a photo shoot for this book’s cover [So Long, Insecurity]. When I told her what the book was about, she nearly flipped.
“Beth, I have been obsessed with the subject lately,” she said. “I’m so concerned about it. I’m concerned for myself. I’m concerned for my six-year-old daughter and the one on the way. You can imagine in my line of work that I see insecurity everywhere. It’s epidemic.”
Then Stacy told me a story right in the middle of applying my eye makeup. Through the years she’s done her magic on a very attractive socialite for various events in a large, metropolitan city. Because my friend is so adorable and lovable (my description, not hers), she soon won the unsolicited favor of the socialite and found herself on the guest list of a prestigious annual event where fashion is queen. Because she’s convinced God orchestrated the relationship, she attends every year. But every year she also stresses. What’s a social stepsister supposed to wear to a ball filled with rich Cinderellas? What should she do with her hair? We’ll pick up the story in her own words.
“I’ve done makeup on women in those kinds of circles so many times, and I know the kind of insecurity they battle. No matter who they are, how they look, or what they have, their world is filled with so much pressure to be perfect and that it’s unbearable. And I, a woman who has walked with Christ all these years and ought to know better, found myself feeling all the same things every time I got ready for that event. I was acting no differently than a woman wholly without the indwelling Christ…until this year. All of the sudden I stopped myself in the middle of a panicked frenzy and said to myself…”
Before she finished her sentence, she put down the makeup brush and patted her heart passionately, confidently, and almost tearfully. She hit each word slowly and deliberately like a hammer on a nail until it pierced my granite head and penetrated all the way to my heart.
“But…I…have…this…Treasure!”
Chills instantly covered my arms. I knew exactly what she was talking about because I was familiar with the passage. It’s from 2 Corinthians 4:
“God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
Did you hear that? We have this treasure! We are aflame with God’s glory and radiating with the light of His knowledge in the exquisite face of His Son, Jesus Christ. And we are insecure? What kind of lies have we believed all this time? We, of all people on the earth, possess the reason, the residents, and the ongoing revelation to be, of all things, most secure.
By the time my friend was finished testifying, I was nearly on my feet, and my heart was a flood of fresh faith. That’s the way women are meant to build one another up in God-given security.
Excerpted from Beth Moore’s new book So Long, Insecurity. (Tyndale House Publishers) Beth’s six-part teaching series “Do Not Throw Away Your Confidence” can be seen at www.wednesdayswithbeth.com.
