You Are More Than a Shell

Each person has a unique shell. From rich creamy brown, pale or golden, black or bronze or albino skin. 

Masculine. Feminine. Long and slender. Short and petite. Skinny or fat.

Blonde, flaming red, luxuriant black, curly or straight hair. Tiny button, hawk, long, Greek or Roman nose.

Deep set, monolid, protruding, down-turned, almond, hooded, round or upturned, brown, gray, green, hazel, blue, or amber eyes. Asian. African. Mediterranean. Indian. European. Straight, pear, apple, spoon, oval, athletic, hourglass, rectangular or diamond shaped.

Even feet are different. They might be Greek, Roman, Celtic, Germanic, or Egyptian in shape. Our shells are diverse – no two are totally identical.  

Your body is the outer covering of you. As Bill and Ann Gilliam used to say – your body is your earth-suit. It isn’t you. You didn’t design it. You guessed it. If you are like many, you are unhappy with your body. 

Sadly, it’s easy to make snap judgments about a person by looking at their shell – the external physical characteristics – things like eyes, hair, nails, skin, or size.

Here is the interesting point. Your shell does not determine who you are as a person. It is only your earth-suit – your external decoration.

You were designed as spirit, soul, and body to manifest the love of God, to show forth His beauty and mercy in your behavior.

Because of the Fall, when Adam and Eve chose to do their own thing, your soul became self-centered. As your inner Self, your soul includes your thoughts, desires, opinions, and wounds. Your soul is impacted by choices made by others – choicest you were not in agreement with but had no say over. It’s also impacted by the myriad of free-will choices you make.

The bottom line is your soul is where trauma and pain hide; it’s where you feel toxic emotions like rejection, loneliness, alienation, fragmentation, isolation, fear, confusion, and anger.

Unless this part of you is touched by the Holy Spirit of God, your self-life will manifest according to what the soul deems to be most advantageous for your own Self. That may be negative things or it may be really positive things, where you devote your life to help others.

Your soul likes to be in control. It thinks, experiences emotions, and makes choices.

It includes your mind, your emotions, and your will. No one can see that part of you – not even you. But what goes on within your soul manifests through your body. We can see your anger, or your frustration, your joy or your sorrow, your celebration or your grief. 

If you’ve experienced childhood trauma, you probably are skilled at hiding your thoughts and emotions. After all, that was how you survived in the midst of abuse.

Because of unresolved things in your past, your brain remains on high alert.

For all of us, this has been intensified with COVID-19, because there has been no resolution and so the brain feels in constant danger.

As a result of trauma, when your brain is triggered by potential danger, you switch into a survival mode that worked best for your brain to feel safe.

The result is, your survival mode manifests when you ignite in a flash, suddenly freeze, move in passivity, put on a smile and try to make everyone happy, or escape into your mind or some addictive substance. 

Deep inside you is your spirit. It is your identity, your conscience, intuition and creativity. It’s the real you.

Your spirit is totally merged in your soul; basically it needs the touch of God to be set free.

The good news is as you come to Calvary in true belief in Jesus as LORD and Saviour, the Holy Spirit births within you a new spirit. Within your spirit, you have all you need for life and godliness.

Are you wondering how that can be? Within your spirit resides the Holy Spirit of God. 

Your spirit is beautiful and unique. It is not limited by your body, or defined by physical things like skin color or hair.

Your spirit was made to soar and to celebrate life. To experience freedom and love beyond anything you can imagine. You were created to thrive – in Christ.

The wonderful news is you are not limited or defined by physical characteristics. No matter what color you are – your spirit has no color, gender or physical attribute. It is hidden with Christ in God – where anger and hatred and racism cannot stand in His presence.

The real you is spirit! 

You are not your body. Or what happened to your body. You are not your race. Nor gender. Nor ethnic background. The real you is invisible.

LOVE lives within you. You were created to thrive on this earth and to rule with Christ over principalities and powers of darkness that would limit you, define you, confine you, and deceive you.

The secret is to stand in the truth of your true identity. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:27-28).

Because this is true – the next time you look at a person – look at the real person. Not what is different. Look for Christ who resides in them and has sanctified them and made them one with you. And celebrate your differences!

It is for freedom Christ has set you free. Stand firm in your freedom as child of the Most High God – and love one another. (Gal 5:1 & 13).