Marie's Prayer: Kutless' "Not What You See"

Do you know why we always fight

I feel like I'm in a constant struggle to be a better person. I try to get into better habits, but I always revert back into my old ways because I'm to pusillanimous to actually change. People look at others who have done major things wrong and think they're the only ones who need to "change their ways". But I realize that while sure someone like my friend Brad who's been in jail for stealing needs to change, but so do I. I need to improve myself before I can even start to help him.

Erinnicole's Prayer: Kutless' "Not What You See"

How could I ever think to be more
than the one who created me

While i don't ever actually say that i think i am placing myself above God, i often try to do things on my own. my attitude has always been that i can do everything on my own. despite some of my actions saying otherwise, like my timid side, i am actually very independent. i don't like being helped and i can't do group work. i would always rather work alone. Even when i was young; we continue to dub our home videos from my early childhood to dvd and as im watching i am realizing i have always been this way. on my second birthday tape, my grandpa tried to help me unwrap a gift i was having trouble with, and i yelled at him to stop.

But i understand, mostly through this song, it's very pompous of myself to think that i should be above God's help. i didn't really consider that this idea was even my take on things, but it seems like something i would do. when i am truly struggling with something, i try to "get back" at the world by getting through it all on my own so later i can say "thanks for not helping at all but that's okay, world, i didn't need it". i honestly dont know why i act that way, but i think sometimes God gets factored in. i know He will always listen but i just want to be able to say i did things all on my own. My prayer is that God, you may help me to be more willing to accept help, especially from you.

Megan's prayer: Kutless' "Not What You See"

Humility is not one of my strong suits. I find myself putting others down, belittling others, even though they don’t deserve it. Not really an attractive quality, I realize, but I am working on it.

Today’s song helped point out the obvious: The world doesn’t revolve around me. It also showed me that, in reality, the world should only revolve around one person.

Only one deserves this exaltation
Only one deserves this elevation

How can I, as a human, really think that I am better than others? How can anyone place themselves higher than others? Weren’t we all made by God, in his own image and likeness? We, as humans, were all created equal. We, as humans, have no reason to put others below us.

And then there is Jesus. The one who deserves “exaltation” and “elevation.”

But even He, He laid it down to serve on bended knee.

Chris' prayer: Kutless' "Not What You See"

Do you feel the tensions rise?
Do you know why we always fight to be better?
Better than you and you better than me?

The other night, I watched a show on television that I had never seen before. After flipping through the few channels I get and not seeing anything I recognized, I settled on True Beauty, a reality show where the contestants compete to see who is truly the most beautiful person, inside and out. The show puts the contestants through obvious physical beauty tests, but also secretly evaluates how beautiful each contestant is on the inside. At the end of the night, as with many reality shows, one person is voted off, in this case by three judges.

Throughout the show, many of the contestants were insulting the others, comparing their physical features to those of their competitors, and trying to assert how favorably they compared. The eventual losing contestant said, "I'm the most gorgeous, dammit. I don't care what...Mr. Palmer [the doctor who gave all the contestants their first test] said."

As I watched the show, knowing what was going on, I wondered how I would do in a competition like this. As a Christian, would I be gracious and loving as I'm called to be, or would I get caught up in the competition as the cameras are hoping, and wind up betraying who I am called to be, if not verbally, then by my actions. When all the cameras are on me, and even when I think that they have all moved on, would I make the gracious, loving choices?

I realize that True Beauty appeals to the lowest common denominator and that there are much better things that I could be doing with my time. But, ultimately, I hope this show will reward exactly the person who Jon Micah Sumrall is talking about in this song: the one who is not what others see, but the one who serves others.


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