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Signposts: Daily Devotions

Sunday, July 12

Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.
—James 3:11-12

How many times have we heard the phrase, "We are what we eat?" When we take an in-depth look at the nature of a piece of fruit or a thick hunk of beef, we can imagine what mysteries lie beneath the chemical and nutritional make-up of that piece of meat or fruit. In some way, the very characteristics of what we eat become a part of our nature. 

Those who practice non-violence, for example, would be hesitant to eat animals that have been killed in an inhumane way, lest that violence be ingested along with the protein and vitamins of the animal. When we apply this principle to our souls, we need to ask ourselves two questions. First, are we living into who we were made to be? Second, what effect does the fruit of our lives have on others?

When we try to be what we are not, our souls become misshapen. We are unable to fully live into the wholeness heaven intends for us. We end up wondering what our purpose is and why we feel unfulfilled. When we compromise who we are, the effect we have on others is diminished.  They do not experience the richness of our being as God intended it because they are receiving only a partial, and disguised, version of us.

The truth is that we have been created to be uniquely ourselves because we have something to offer to the world.  We are a part of the nourishment of the world. When we hide who we are, or try to be who we are not, we and others suffer. But, when we are just who we were meant to be, we yield the fruit that feeds the world.

Gracious God, give me the courage to be always and only who you have made me to be.