Let’s face it, life is about routine to the maximum. People are constantly seeking diversions from the ordinary. This is because our lives are so mundane. We seek to break the tedium. This is why entertainment is such a popular business. Actors and actresses give us hope that there is some way off the treadmill even if it is for a few hours. We inherently rebel against the predestination of this present world. We desire a world of our own choosing.
We want to live in a world where we are multimillionaires and can go to any exotic place whenever we so desire. God has given us an imagination but we have the tendency to believe that our fantasy is reality. We were created in the image of God. We cannot escape this fact, no matter how hard we try. One of the attributes of God is His immutability. This is for us, a double edged sword.
Only a few have been so gifted to enjoy what is popularly deemed the good life. Their names are not legion. The masses are the ones who live the lives of the ordinary. This fact maybe for two reasons. One is most people are content with mediocrity and the other is that some are willing to sacrifice to be the best at what they do. You have divergent paths all at the same time. Few are willing to pay the price for success.
Yet, at the same time, we find our lives conform to original patterns that were formed early in our lives. It is as though, we can never overcome these, no matter how much we desire to do so. They seem to be so deeply ingrained in our psyche. This makes reversion an inevitable thing. This all has to do with our personality. We are inborn with certain traits that we can only improve on but never overcome.
Where do we get our personality from? Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines "person," as, "1. An individual human being consisting of body and soul. We apply the word to living beings only, possessed of a rational nature; the body when dead is not called a person. It applied alike to a man, woman or child. A person is a thinking intelligent being. Locke..." Personality, based upon this definition, comes from God. This was established in Genesis 1:26-27, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Whatever God is, we are in a state that is derivative of Him. We are never primary, but rather secondary.
What then is personality? The above dictionary renders "personality," "That which constitutes an individual a distinct person, or that which constitutes individuality. The personality of an intelligent being extends itself beyond present existence to what is past, only by consciousness—
Locke.... Since God is infinite, He is able to give to each and everyone same and yet at the same time distinct characteristics. This speaks more to God’s ability than to our personality being distinct from everyone else. We are one of a kind, in some unique ways.
This is truly the case of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Only begotten Son means His unique Son. He truly had a personality that was the most distinct of all time. There never has been and never will be again one with such a dissimilar personality from all of humankind.
David wrote in Psalm 139:13-16, "For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. 14I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. 15My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." Each of us are distinctly, fearfully and wonderfully conceived.
We hold many things in common with one another and yet at the same time we have things that are different from everyone else in the entire world. We have fingerprints that are unusually ours. Our DNA is not like any other person. We are in a word universality and plurality. This once again proves that we were created in the image of God, who is the ultimate universality and plurality.
David said further in Psalm 8:4-6, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet." God has given us all talents and abilities to do the work for which He has placed us upon the earth for.
Because our personalities are unique with us, some things are always going to be our particular pattern. We need to learn how to appreciate other people’s differences from ours. Few possess this quality. Most believe themselves to be the ultimate pattern. Diversity then is an aspect of the Godhead and of mankind. Each of us has something exceptional to contribute to the furthering of goodwill on the earth. May God help us to discover what it is.
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