Are you spiritually fussy, or do you hunger and thirst after righteousness? Have you had difficulty in finding a church that is a good fit for you? Everyone has their preferences and depending on how narrow yours are you may not be able to satisfy them all with what is available to you. But your fussiness regarding food will vary depending on how hungry you are, and you will not starve with food available even if it isn’t your first choice. Do you see how the same principle applies spiritually? Is your spiritual hunger great enough to overcome your fussiness?

Are you familiar with the problem of body image issues? Do you think this only affects adolescent girls? Could it be that everyone has body image issues; that it is so pervasive that you are unaware of it? According to the Genesis account, this was not present at the very beginning, but was the first acquired trait from the Big Mistake. People have worn clothing ever since. Could the underlying shame be a source of self-alienation even for people who are covered? The Big Mistake was a spiritual issue more than a physical one.

Do you have hope? When you express hope, is it usually for a desired outcome, that your car will start, that you will pass a test, that the weather will favor your intentions? But not everything you hoped for turns out the way you desired. Can you still have hope in a more universal and transcendent sense? Can you have hope in a way that doesn’t depend on particular outcomes? Transcendent hope is based on the premise that I am good, that I watch over your life and am involved in it. If you know this you can have hope in an ultimate sense, that isn’t dependent on particular events.

How do you see yourself? Have you crafted an identity that you present to the world, the total of your hobbies and interests and education and profession and national origin, among others? But you are more than the sum of these things. I gave you a perfectly good identity that is intrinsic in your being; you don’t need to make one out of spare parts. Be careful how you define yourself, for the identity that you craft is one of distinctions that can leave you isolated from those who do not share them.