Upgraded
Who are you?
Who am I?
why are we here?
More than ever, your journey as a college student will be be an adventure filled with thinking about the childhood home you just left behind, your present college challenges, and the unknown future awaiting you.
As we ponder on the centuries-old questions above, we often reflect on our personal life purpose, present, past, and hopefully future needs to grow, improve and upgrade.
Do you feel that you are long overdue for an upgrade?
No I’m not talking about your iPhone or mine, but about a total reboot and upgrade of our body, mind, and spirit.
I once owned an iPhone 4s for years, but after repeated pleas from family and loved ones, I had no option but to release this old and outdated 3G version phone, and what I thought was the best plan, to oblivion. I finally had to make the hard decision ( the easiest and only decision in my pleading teenage children’s view) and part ways with an aging device that was no longer able to deliver what I needed. And man! my newly acquired iPhone 6 have upgraded, sped, and enhanced the way I write, research topics, blog, and watch that fascinating thing called Netflix; blessings that I’ve long resisted and failed to see.
Friend, do you feel like my old iPhone 4s in desperate need for an upgrade and a reboot? The truth be told, you and I are always in a lifelong search to reboot and upgrade ourselves. God knows, we can all afford to have good upgraded thinking and set of beliefs that will fix our bad attitudes, and replace any of our dark and negative feelings, emotions, and the behaviors that follow them.
In essence, we all feel at times like my old phone that has lost its energy, power, significance, and was desperately in need of an upgrade. But even as I acknowledge my need for a regular body, mind, and spirit upgrade, rebooting, and renewal, I must also recognize that my human worth and value can’t be up for an upgrade.
For even as our old and obsolete phones might desperately need upgrades, the great value of owning and using a smart phone in our fast and technologically savvy world remains solid and unchanged. Similarly, our amazing human value never changes or lessens even as our physical bodies, attitudes, thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are desperately in need of a major reboot, and upgrades that are available for us to choose from.
I believe our human value and worth can’t be up for an upgrade because
it’s God-given.
It’s ours to have and enjoy.
It’s God made and not man-made,
and hence it’s our legacy and an inheritance to always keep throughout our life journey.
But this journey from cradle-to-grave can be messy for all of us, messier for many, and extremely messy for a number of us. As a physician with many years of patient care experience, I’ve seen, heard and treated thousands of good people who lost their physical and emotional health, their families and friends, kidneys and limbs, youth and energy, peace, and hope. Yet, I know that the very one thing they have never lost, and can never lose is their inherent and God made human dignity, worth, and value.
Sadly, money, wealth, popularity, high GPA, degrees, jobs, skills, past or present failures or successes, mental state, age, color, race, ethnicity, looks, childhood home, age, success, power, position, sickness, physical handicap, and personal life choices and beliefs are what our world uses to determine one’s worth and value. But contrary to our societal indoctrination, thinking and emotions, we’re all still valuable and worthy with or without any of the above.
You and I are inherently valuable and with immeasurable worth whether we’re rich or poor, with or without acne, black or white, tall or short, young or old with Alzheimer dementia, skinny or large, saints or sinners, with legs that can walk and run or without limbs, physically active or a quadriplegic in a wheelchair. Our looks, what others say about you, possessions, physical abilities, past failures, life choices, or whatever we choose to believe, think, and pursue aren’t determinants of our human worth and value.
Friend, Who am I? and Who you’re? are never meant to be determined by my, your, or someone’s personal thoughts, or feelings. For God has created, and made us in His image; unique, approved, beautiful, loved, worthy and immensely valuable as quadriplegics in wheelchairs or as Olympians winning 100 -meter races.
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27 (NIV)
Advice and recommendations offered here are not meant to replace your medical provider’s individual evaluation, diagnosis and treatment. Please see your medical provider for any physical or emotional concerns.
Views expressed here are only of the author, and do not represent the views of any other organization or entity.
Adel G. Hanna, M.D,
Author: Soldier To Soldier Heart to Heart
A Doctor’s Stories from a Military Camp
Blog: www.adelhanna.com
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