Self-worth

Low self-esteem is a direct result of a loss of identity, who you are, who you’ve always been. This claim sounds in many instances trite when viewed on a surface level. Regrettably, most of humanity functions on this level. There is however a higher plane, a deeper level which a select few chose to operate from. Yet notice the word “chose” for it truly is a choice consciously made to rise above.

Identity is not about what you do. You are not a worker-class person first. Your role in the commerce of a region is not who you are. IF it were, you would have been that from your birth. Your present wage-earner model is a result of decisions made to satisfy an economic demand you have encumbered yourself with. Your job pays the bills, period. Your bills are not who you are. People who don’t comprehend this live in the constant threat of losing their identity to marketplace fluctuations. Low demand for workers, reduced pay, layoffs, out sourcing are all seen as attacks on identity rather than changes in economics.

Every single person on this planet has as set of basic core needs that define who they are. Two of the main needs are love/connection, and significance. We are not independent individuals moving through life. We are dependent inter-dividuals trying to learn the dance of living. Each of us seeks to be loved, to give love and connect with others as a result. This interaction with others establishes our significance, or our self-worth. There is no worth or value being alone, isolated from people. People establish our worth/value, not us. An inflated ego is no different than low self-esteem simply because they are a result of our perceived over-comparison to other people influenced by our deficiency of love/connection.

So who are we; what is our true identity? The paradox is we are the same, yet different. As a child we thrived in the love and connection we were nurtured in. Much of this may have been a mystical experience which we never even realized we were taking part of. Many I have talked to speak of “God moments” as a child where they were closer to God than at any other time in their lives. They often speak of some type of veil which came between them and God which moved Him further away from them. You must consider that these people, as children, had made no profession of faith, adopted a doctrine of atonement or prayed for absolution of sins. These formalities came much later in life. However, prior to this moment where the veil appeared, they say that they felt at one with the Father.

Jesus made that his last prayer request for all of us. Being one with the Father, a child of God is our identity. Consider the passage which declares that God is love. The Creator, the supreme being of all that surrounds us is the one thing we all need and seek to possess. Love, not as an act or as a characteristic, but as a being, is the anchor of our identity as a child. This connects us to Him in ways we haven’t even begun to tap into. All of our significance rests in His love for us inter-dividually. We are all one with Him.

If your desire is to be more at one with God, my questions is just how do you expect that to happen? Do you think that praying more, reading your bible more, worshiping Him more is going to bring you closer? Are you trying to pull yourself up to Him of draw Him down to you? As weird as this might sound, do you think that your favorite pet experiences these same things with you? Do they feel compelled to become more dog-like or cat-like in order to experience your love? Do they read their pet manual to the Human Deity as a way of being closer to you? Do they wail and moan in adoration to receive attention and acceptance? Of course not. Why then do we? We’re obviously not God’s pets but we sometimes act really mule-headed out of traditions designed to “ushering the presence.”

If you’re experiencing a sense of detachment from God, you’re not as close as you were as a child, then maybe you need to go back to that place where the veil was placed between you two. Sit in the presence of the One who never left and pull back the veil of who you thought you have become to see who you’ve always been. Re-experience Love and connect with the divine nature of your significance within humanity’s dance. You are greatly loved and there is not a thing you can do to change it – ever.