"We Can't All Rock Red!"

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." Hebrews 10:23 

I had just picked up my medicine from the pharmacy and had been meaning to purchase red lipstick all week. I felt so silly standing in line for a tiny tube of red, that I made sure to grab another item I did not even need just so I would not look crazy in front of the cashier. I was dressing up as Mary Poppins for a family costume party and absolutely needed some red lipstick to match the metallic red bow tie I was wearing. 

I was kind of confused as I drove home, wondering why we as woman spend our hard earned money on something so silly. I looked in my rear view mirror, and it seemed to me my lips were red enough! But regardless, an element of excitement had me eager to try on this exaggerated red!  Something in me hoped that this lipstick would somehow make me more beautiful. 

I quickly ran to the bathroom and applied the red to my lips, making sure to cover all of the pretty natural rose color that laid below. Stepping back, I looked in the mirror. I LOOKED RIDICULOUS. Maybe I just was not used to it, I reassured myself. I kept it on as I went on with my evening. I even worked out and cleaned the bathroom with this crazy look. My brother asked what happened to my face. And by the times I was ready to give up the facade I realized two things. First, this Mary Poppins could not pull off red lipstick. And second, I could buy all the lipstick in the world, spend millions of dollars on my fashion, and starve myself skinny, but if I am not striving to be the woman of God I was created to be and the one I desire to be, none of that can make me feel beautiful! 

Today a group of teens I lead at my church was reflecting on their baptismal promises. We talked about which were easy to profess and which were more difficult. As I looked at the promises myself, I knew the one that was so evidently a struggle for me. 

Do you reject satan...and all his empty promises? 

Yes, I have professed this to be true. And deep down I do. But daily, I think it is easy to be deceived. The promises, as empty as they are, are easy to buy into. Red lipstick will make your lips look perfect. Alcohol will make your problems disappear. Sex is not sacred. What empty promises is he telling you? 

I think one of the most devastating lies he tells us all is that we just are not enough. We are not pretty enough or smart enough. We do not have enough money. We are not good enough for love. And he gives us empty promises to fix these things. Just as he told Eve of the apple, he tells us the way to glory is sin, comparison, jealousy, theft, lies, false idols, back stabbing and selfishness. 

But, the story does not end with all those false promises and I am blessed to say that so much of the baptismal promises are so easy for me to profess. Why? I know God. I know His love. I know His truths. And I know His full promises. 

There is a battle for our hearts. And even when we can say we know the enemy, I think it is easy to be caught up in the heat of the war. Lines become blurred and we begin to lose sight of who's side we are on. But, even as I assembled my Mary Poppins costume and placed my black hat on my head I received a quiet reminder from God as I looked in the mirror. My lips were not bright red like I had originally imagined they would so beautifully be, but they were perfectly rose and to be honest quite beautifully natural to me! 

I think we can spend so much of our time trying to fight against our own cause. We try so hard to keep up with the false promises of the devil that we will only be made perfect when we follow the ways of the world. But I have tried that route, and time and time again God says to me, "Drop the act, I created you beautiful the way you are!" 

Do not waste your time on empty promises! Lean of the truth and promises of a God who lovingly created you to be just that, YOU! Big or small, smart or not, pretty or funny or just plain crazy. That's the YOU He designed. Maybe the you He created can totally pull off the red lips, it just so happens that the me He created cannot and I am learning that I can be perfectly beautiful and loved despite that! 

Be who you are and be it well. -St. Francis de Sales