Manifest Destiny... no, not that one...

I have fallen in love with a few words in my life. Some of them are in English, some not. Two of my favorite words in the English language are "Manifest" and "Authenticity." Today, I want to touch upon the word "manifest."

Manifest is an inside-out reality. You cannot manifest anything outside of who you truly are. You can copy behaviors, imitate role models and such, but you can only truly manifest what has happened within you.

Paul prays the Christ would be "formed" in the Galatian church (Galatians 4:19). What an amazing inner reality! The only other place that the phrase "is formed" is used in the Bible refers to the potter forming the clay and a child being formed in a mother's womb. Admittedly, I know next to nothing about the experience of a child formed in me, and so I rely on the experience of mothers everywhere to describe what it is like. But the experience of manifesting an inner reality is something everyone can relate to.

At my most anxious, I am the kid who desperately wants to be like, no matter what the cost. The inner dialogue is "You have to prove that you are worth something, that you are not a liability. After all, you don't want to disappoint someone..." And that voice gains a threshold and I manifest that. My joy is siphoned away, my actions are meant to minimize potential harm, I find patterns of escape. I manifest my inner story.

But what happens when Christ is formed in me? Then I begin to manifest Christ. My conversations become immediately more impactful in that I emotionally connect with the words I am saying and they are no longer words. I think that's what the prophets must have felt like when their words could build and destroy (Jeremiah 1:10). Words take on a certain power, they manifest truth. I feel the weight of glory, as Paul says and CS Lewis elaborates, I feel more alive.

I call this post "Manifest Destiny" because I believe eternity is going to be the constant experience of what I only taste now. I will feel that alive (moreso, probably) continually. I'm not sure how I am going to handle that. But for the moment, I enjoy the times when I manifest my eternal destiny today. When everything clicks and I am in that "alive" moment, I can feel Christ being formed. My prayers are different and my experience is different, and that anxious kid who desperately wants to make friends gives way to the friend of Christ who is created for purpose. May you manifest your destiny today.