The Journey 258
Read: Luke 7: 36-50
The world’s most beautiful people. A news magazine recently released a list of the most beautiful people of 2012 and the people included in the list are Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Blake Shelton, Bradley Cooper…. and the list goes on. But missing in this list is the name of Lizzie Velasquez. Her name was not included maybe because she was not beautiful “outside”, but on the contrary if you listen to her story, you will understand that she is the most beautiful woman. When one of her videos was uploaded on You Tube, people ridiculed her as the most ugliest woman. What was wrong with Lizzie?. She was born with a medical condition so rare that only two other people in this world has. The problem with Lizzie is that she has no adipose tissue and as a result of this, the body does not have nor create any muscle, nor can store energy nor gain weight. People who saw her ridiculed here and even sent sadistic comments to her to kill herself. But on the contrary she set four goals in her life to counteract the comments. The goals were to become a motivational speaker, to publish a book, to graduate college and finally to build a family and have a career. She has already accomplished the first two. She has published two books. The first one was “Lizzie Beautiful” and the second book titled “ Be Beautiful, Be You” was published recently. She also gives motivational speeches on topics like embracing uniqueness, dealing with bullies and on successfully overcoming challenges. According to Lizzie, she says that she is glad she does not look like the celebrities who are beautiful, as there are lot of stereotypes attached to it, on the contrary she is unique in her own self. When people hurt her by their rude and sadistic comments, she says that “ They are just words, But it hurt me since I am human, but their judgment of me is not what I am and that is not what is going to define me”. Lizzie goes to a level of emotional and intellectual maturity when she says that by retaliating I don't want to sink to their level, on the contrary take revenge by contributing to the world in terms of who I am and what I can do as a unique person. This is just extraordinary. Here is a woman who is dubbed in the most inhuman way, but she is determined that it is not the world nor others who define her and her goal in life. I think if we all could live with at least half of the commitment and determination that Lizzie has , our lives and our world would have been so different. Hence let us think who defines us as to who we are and how do we define ourselves?
We are meditating on the theme “Transformed Living”. The portion that we shall use for our meditation is from Luke 7: 36-50. Here we find a wonderful episode of Jesus teaching the Pharisee on how to appreciate a person, not because of what she is or what she has done in her past but to look at a person’s heart and intentions. In this passage Jesus is having fellowship in the house of a Pharisee when a woman come to the presence of Jesus and wets his feet with tears and anoints with perfume. This action is detested by the host, who feels that this woman is not worthy neither to be in his house nor should Jesus relate to people who are “like” this. The stereotyped woman. It is the Pharisee who decides which type of people should Jesus relate with. But the woman is not stung by the criticism of the Pharisee and all that she does is to cry and anoint Jesus Christ. Tears and anointment are both precious in the sight of God but these actions are meaningless to the world and to the Pharisee, whose values are more of materialistic in nature. What Jesus teaches the woman, the Pharisee and ourselves is that let not others define who you are and your role in a particular situation. We have been redeemed and accepted by our Lord through His grace, and this gives us the strength to live our life in a unique way that brings glory to the Lord and also most befitting to us. It is to this objective that Jesus helped the woman to rise and is calling all of us to rise too. Lizzie saw that she defines herself and not the world, but what about you?.... Who defines you?
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla
The world’s most beautiful people. A news magazine recently released a list of the most beautiful people of 2012 and the people included in the list are Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Blake Shelton, Bradley Cooper…. and the list goes on. But missing in this list is the name of Lizzie Velasquez. Her name was not included maybe because she was not beautiful “outside”, but on the contrary if you listen to her story, you will understand that she is the most beautiful woman. When one of her videos was uploaded on You Tube, people ridiculed her as the most ugliest woman. What was wrong with Lizzie?. She was born with a medical condition so rare that only two other people in this world has. The problem with Lizzie is that she has no adipose tissue and as a result of this, the body does not have nor create any muscle, nor can store energy nor gain weight. People who saw her ridiculed here and even sent sadistic comments to her to kill herself. But on the contrary she set four goals in her life to counteract the comments. The goals were to become a motivational speaker, to publish a book, to graduate college and finally to build a family and have a career. She has already accomplished the first two. She has published two books. The first one was “Lizzie Beautiful” and the second book titled “ Be Beautiful, Be You” was published recently. She also gives motivational speeches on topics like embracing uniqueness, dealing with bullies and on successfully overcoming challenges. According to Lizzie, she says that she is glad she does not look like the celebrities who are beautiful, as there are lot of stereotypes attached to it, on the contrary she is unique in her own self. When people hurt her by their rude and sadistic comments, she says that “ They are just words, But it hurt me since I am human, but their judgment of me is not what I am and that is not what is going to define me”. Lizzie goes to a level of emotional and intellectual maturity when she says that by retaliating I don't want to sink to their level, on the contrary take revenge by contributing to the world in terms of who I am and what I can do as a unique person. This is just extraordinary. Here is a woman who is dubbed in the most inhuman way, but she is determined that it is not the world nor others who define her and her goal in life. I think if we all could live with at least half of the commitment and determination that Lizzie has , our lives and our world would have been so different. Hence let us think who defines us as to who we are and how do we define ourselves?
We are meditating on the theme “Transformed Living”. The portion that we shall use for our meditation is from Luke 7: 36-50. Here we find a wonderful episode of Jesus teaching the Pharisee on how to appreciate a person, not because of what she is or what she has done in her past but to look at a person’s heart and intentions. In this passage Jesus is having fellowship in the house of a Pharisee when a woman come to the presence of Jesus and wets his feet with tears and anoints with perfume. This action is detested by the host, who feels that this woman is not worthy neither to be in his house nor should Jesus relate to people who are “like” this. The stereotyped woman. It is the Pharisee who decides which type of people should Jesus relate with. But the woman is not stung by the criticism of the Pharisee and all that she does is to cry and anoint Jesus Christ. Tears and anointment are both precious in the sight of God but these actions are meaningless to the world and to the Pharisee, whose values are more of materialistic in nature. What Jesus teaches the woman, the Pharisee and ourselves is that let not others define who you are and your role in a particular situation. We have been redeemed and accepted by our Lord through His grace, and this gives us the strength to live our life in a unique way that brings glory to the Lord and also most befitting to us. It is to this objective that Jesus helped the woman to rise and is calling all of us to rise too. Lizzie saw that she defines herself and not the world, but what about you?.... Who defines you?
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla