WYSIWYG
[Part 6, Chapter 36]
You’ve worked hard. The document seems aligned and in place. Then you print, and it looks like a dog’s breakfast.
WYSIWYG, a computing phrase meaning What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get.
If only it were that simple.
Many of us have spent a lifetime hiding from others that which we don’t want them to see; projecting on to others that which we do want them to see; performing for others so they’ll like what they see; comparing ourselves with others to determine what they ought to see; rationalising before others to explain what they see; controlling others to regulate how they should see.
Favour releases you to be genuine, that is, the true you. It frees you to see yourself as you really are in Jesus.
Favour flows from your identity. Your identity as a daughter or son is bound up in Jesus and the solidity of his identity.
Jesus grew holistically: socially, spiritually, relationally, and physically. This released him to be the most genuine person who has ever walked this earth. Secure in the love of his Father, he could live with the rejection he received from others, knowing the acceptance he’d already received.
Favour enabled Jesus to show up and be seen. That is one of author Brené Brown’s definitions of courage. It enabled Jesus to be truly himself, the Beloved Son of his Father.
What if you don’t know the true you?
Well, you don’t find that person by looking externally. By switching from Maybelline to MAC, from Adidas to ASICS, from Chanel to Estée Lauder. You don’t get it by changing addresses, jobs, partners, or universities. You don’t discover yourself by producing more, working longer hours, or ticking off more tasks. You don’t find the genuine you by driving a nicer car, building a bigger house, or drinking more expensive wine.
It’s an inside job.
WYSIWYG people know the order is always Whose → Who → Whom.
When we know whose we are, that is, the Father’s, we then know who we are, his daughters and sons. This truth liberates us to live out of our identity. That in turn makes us secure. We become secure as we grow in living loved and are filled with Father’s favour.
Living freely out of this security-releasing-identity, we then grow as genuine people.
Genuine people are neat to be around. We don’t have to guess, we don’t need to pretend, we are free to be who we truly are in Jesus. We can give up the cycle of impressing, comparing, competing, convincing, and even conniving. What a relief!
Being genuine is a fruit of being grounded in Father. He sees you as his own, precious child. His favour grows you in such a way that you become secure in body, soul, mind, and spirit.
That is, like Jesus, growing in wisdom and stature, in favour with God and others.