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We celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary in 2008. Our children helped us celebrate with an all expense paid all arranged vacation In Hawaii.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
In certain stores you will find a section of merchandise available at greatly reduced prices. The tip-off is a particular tag you will see on all the items in that area. Each tag carries the same words: as is.
This is a euphemistic way of saying, "These are damaged goods." Sometimes they're called slightly irregular.
When it comes to people we are tempted to live under the illusion that somewhere out there are people who are normal. In the movie As Good As It Gets, Helen Hunt in desperation cries to her mother:" I just want a normal boyfriend."
"Oh," her mother responds in empathy, "Everybody wants one of those. There's no such thing, dear."
When we enter relationships with the illusion that people are normal, we resist the truth that they are not. We enter an endless attempt to fix them, control them, or pretend that they are what they're not. One of the great marks of maturity is to accept the fact that everybody comes "as is."
Oh how we could simplify our lives if we could just accept this one fact of life.
(The ideas expressed in this post were adapted from John Ortberg's splendid book, Everybody's Normal Till You Get To Know Them.)
20 comments:
This is so true.
Charlotte
Clif!
There truly is no such thing as normal. It's just one persons perspective of what they very normal is to them!
I love this post! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Love and Hugs ~ Kat
Love that quote "as is" and be applied to acceptance of a person. People's feelings always change and I'm thankful that the Lord never changes. My "as is" He changed to "bought as is and transformed to "it is fixed with a heavenly kind of warranty." Thank You Lord!
Such wisdom! Great post Clif!
Hi Clif,
Only God can truly change a person inside out. We all need to let each other off the hook. Great post! Thanks for sharing and have a wonderful Sunday.
Blessings,
Sandi
How blessed I feel, realizing He loves me "as is"! Unconditional love, indeed!
Thank you for this wonderful message. I am growing in so many ways and this will help me as I go through this journey.
Those are very good thoughts to take into my Sunday.
God bless you, Anne
AMEN!!
Ginger
Very, very true.
I'm glad that I was "bought with a price" even thought I'm irregular. Happy SS day.
Love this post, Clif! Wonderful perspective - I'm passing this on. Thanks so much for sharing. I love the Bible AND baloney! Blessings to you and yours!
Clif, you are so right. I am really working hard on having more tolerance with people and not judging. Thank you for the post.
Kathleen
I love that idea and will share that with my teens after all that is the way that the Lord accepts all of us As Is
I am in "as is" condition and still I know that God loves me "just as I am." Wonderful thought. Thanks Clif!
~Jean
Every married couple should read your post today! Yes, we are all irregular and need His unconditional love. I liked "As Good As it Gets" I'm a Jack Nicholson fan. Too bad you did not join us at Gooseberries; it would have been an honor to meet you in person, but I totally understand...all the woman, yeah!
Hi Clif,
I tell my boys and myself and anybody else who will listen, "if you can't love someone exactly the way he is, you're going to have a big problem. we can't change anybody else, only ourselves." Thanks for this! I am actually more than slightly irregular. =]
Cliff,
What an awesome post, so very true. I am so glad that God takes me "as is". So much wisdom here.Thank you for sharing.
I would like to give you an update on the book , The Gold Standard, it is now in the hands of a certain fifteen year old grandson who simply loves Duke University, as a matter of fact while visiting us last week, we took him up to the campus and what a treat it was for him.
He loves Coach K, and was thrilled to get this book for his birthday, there was one stipulation and that was he is to give us a book review when he finishes it, and hopefully I will be able to pass that along to you, especially since you were so kind to award this book to my family.
Blessings,
Sue
well said...
It is when we think folk see that "as is" and that they might just discard us...well that is an issue that Many an "as is" has faced when coming to the church for acceptance.
I loved this post.
"as is the daughter of the I Am"
:)
What an enlightening and freeing way to look at others. If we let go of looking for the normal in others then it only stands to reason that we would let go of trying to be normal ourselves. How freeing.
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