The voice asked a new, yet uncomfortably familiar question.
"Does God like you?"
The chapel speaker works at Biola, and speaks often, and he has a unique rhetorical style. I've noticed that he has a way of touching on lots of different topics throughout his chapels, speaking like an easygoing stream, rambling along slowly but surely in search of the destination.
I've been a Christian for pretty much my whole life - not in the same way, of course, but constantly. My faith has grown since I was a little kid watching veggie tales and singing "This is the day that the Lord has made" at preschool every morning. I've struggled through doubt and pain, periods of stagnation, soaring moments of joy and peace, and everything in between. I know in my heart, mind, and soul that God loves me, but I've never really asked if God likes me. Emphasis on really. Because I think I kind of have.
Like, God loves me enough to do crazy things, creating mountains and oceans for me, giving me a kindred soul in good friends and my sweet boyfriend, and blessing me with more than I deserve. He sent His Son to do a degrading and horrible thing just to fix my stupid mistakes so that He could be with me.
I guess He likes me.
So why do I hesitate? Of course the answer is yes. I guess it's just hard to believe that someone who has everything could want me. It's hard enough for me to believe that my boyfriend, being so kind and loving and accomplished, could love me. It's even harder to believe that God could. I guess a "realistic" view of myself is to blame.
Is it realistic though? The Creator of the Universe ascribes all worth. The Bible says that "in Him, we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28, ESV). Again, it says, "It is He who made us, we are His" (Psalm 100:3). Is it realistic to believe that God shouldn't like me because of how lowly and sinful I am compared to Him? Or because of my extra "padding" on my love handles? Or because of my lack of social skills? Maybe not. If God made us, carefully crafting the curves of our bodies and the recesses of our minds, how can anyone say that we are not likable? We are works of art. We are not always understood, but we are to be appreciated.
But do we feel it? Do you believe in your heart and soul that God likes you?
Some of my circumstances make my soul shrink away from this question. I've had some really hard, really tragic things happen to me. They block out the light from the rest of the goodness that I've been given.
I've had strange housing situations in college. It blocks the light that I'm in college, and I'm graduating debt-free, and my parents were around to guide and counsel me from birth into college. It's just an odd living situation, but it blocks me from realizing the lovely life that I have.
I've experienced the violent, tragic, unjust death of two friends. That blocks the light that I had them in the first place, and that I have a network of people around me to care for me during my grief, and a school that allowed me to process it openly in an academic setting. It blocks the light that God gave us our lives and that "this skin and bones is a rental, and no one makes it out alive" (Where I Belong by Switchfoot).
Can I look past the shade to find the light? Can I see past circumstance to believe that God loves me? That He doesn't have it out for me? That He does good things, even though bad things exist too? This is a lifelong project for me. I get distracted. Don't we all?
I have this new objective in mind: to believe in my inner being that God likes me. He crafted me the way I am on purpose, and He gives me worth and value. And even when things look dark, there's light to find.
God likes you.
It's time to believe it.
And something else to think about:
Do you like Him?
