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Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)

'For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.'

My Myers-Briggs personality type, INTP, tells me that I live the largest amount of my life within my own headspace. Making sense of the world around me, and indeed making sense of what other people say or do, is primarily through my mental filters. The challenge is engaging with others in both making sense of them and being understood and welcomed by them. For all of us, our instinctive personality type will offer opportunities and restrictions. Yet, we are each one a glorious expression of God’s personal handiwork. Let’s remember to rejoice in that.

I can, and have, spent an excessive amount of time thinking, and at times worrying about, who I am. This tends to lead me in ever-increasing circles of self-doubt and internal angst, which I don’t recommend. My head swirls as I seek to interpret everything and measure it against the picture of life I’ve built up to date. This demands energy and can prove deeply frustrating. How about I just recognise I am wired as I’m wired, God sees the beauty in it and all I have to do is remember I am created for the good works God has set before me? In other words, just get on with life.

Recently I was reading a book given to me by a friend. Much I found helpful, yet there were elements I disagreed with. I now wanted to assimilate new information into how I perceived the world and raised challenges to what I already thought, and more importantly, to how I lived my life. I recognised the struggle in seeking to accommodate these differing views alongside my current perspectives and immediately questioned the path I was treading.

I resolved this inner tension simply by acknowledging difference, celebrating diversity, appreciating the challenge it brought to my own thinking and recognising that I might spend an age reconciling all these disparate thoughts, but in so doing I’d miss the opportunity to do what God has set before me. I chose what I saw as God’s good works ahead of mental gymnastics on this occasion.

QUESTION: What good works is God setting before you for you to do?

PRAYER: Thank you, Lord, for making me, and for making me new in Christ.