of a meltdown.
I had already picked out the breakable missile to be thrown at, well, something breakable.
My inner voice was saying, rather loudly, that there was nothing to break that could be salvaged and that I should put down the weapon.
I’m not certain when my inner voice became a hostage negotiator, but she has, and with obvious authority, decided that she’s the boss of me.
My meltdown voice, not to be silenced by a newbie, was saying “I don’t care, something has to give.”
Then the inner voice then said, in a still, soft tone, “who are you mad at and why do you want to break things?”
I replied, in my loud, hateful voice,” what do you care? Leave me alone”.
That soft voice spoke again and said, simply, “Why do you work so hard to destroy yourself?”
It stopped me in my tracks.
I realized at that moment that I was mad at someone.
I was furious that I was, once again, left feeling like I had done something wrong.
I was angry that I felt alone, insecure and abandoned by someone who would, if the world turned on its axis as it is supposed to, mean nothing to me.
I realized that I was disappointed in myself for being gullible, fallible, ignorant and needy and yes, I was intent on destroying myself because of it.
I was angry that I could put so much of my self-worth into someone that found no worth in a friendship I was willing to give.
I was angry because I felt I needed someone to find worth in me.
I was angry because, for a span of time, I could find no worth in myself.
That newbie voice just kept on jabbering until I was forced to either listen or throw myself into an active volcano.
Since burning every inch of skin off of my body was the lesser of the choices, I decided to stop being a self-centered, belligerent jerk and listen.
So I listened and in doing so, decided that the newbie voice was likely getting some coaching from a veteran.
I’m worthy without validation, for many reasons, the least not being that I am a child of Christ.
When I went down the reasons that I should feel OK about myself, that one reason, the most important one, didn’t immediately enter my mind.
Yes, there are people I want to like me.
They chip away at my self-esteem and make me feel that I will be less of a person if they don’t interact with me.
They, at some point, gained control over my self worth and whittled it down to next to nothing,
But if they don’t see it, my world will unfold just as it would have anyway.
There came the WOW moment that made me think twice about where I was, where I’d come from and to where I was going.
I found myself very disappointed in myself because I had, yet again, lost my way.
But, if the voice is accurate, which at this point, I’ve no reason to suspect otherwise, the way will be made clear if I stop feeling sorry for myself and ask for directions.
Yes, folks have hurt me more than I ever knew I could be hurt, on a level that I didn’t even realize existed.
But they can continue to hurt me only if I continue to let them … if I give them the power to make me feel inadequate, insecure and unworthy.
There is only one person who dictates my worth and HE has found me worthy.
I question that.
Daily.
Hourly.
But HE is in a position of omnipotent power and if HE says HE likes being around me, then everything and everyone I have felt inferior to become irrelevant in my world.
I’ve cried way more tears over things I can’t change than over the blessings I had before I tried to change anything.
My meltdown lost merit after that.
I didn’t feel the need to shatter physical things.
Instead, I felt the desire to lift myself higher than I had deemed myself worthy to be because ONE well more worthy than myself found me worthy.
I felt compelled to love and to pray for the ones who challenged my worth.
I am thankful for a Saviour who sees the weapon in my hand and understands that I really want to throw it; who sees my tears and feels my pain, who knows my broken heart and comes running.
I have been looking in the wrong place for a long time.
It doesn’t mean that I won’t want to throw things again, as that is part of the imaginative nature I have been given; but I won’t want to throw them in hurtful indignation.
I will throw them simply for the fun of it.
And then I can sing joyously while I dance in the rain because I am worthy of the raindrops from Heaven.
Life isn’t easy, it’s not a cake-walk or a bed of roses, at least not all the time.
At other times, it is rainbows, daisies, trees in winter and fairies in springtime.
It is, essentially, what it is, and I’m worthy, so says my Lord, to enjoy the best and endure the worst and still be who I was destined to me.
Myself.
In His image and under the magnificent umbrella of His faith in me.
I am, in this moment, OK with that.
A Photographer's Heart 