Rick Warren has an acrostic called SHAPE to talk about the five things that make you, you. SHAPE is the way God wired you for your life. Every area of your life is influenced by the way you’re shaped.
Spiritual gifts,
heart (passion, interests)
abilities,
personality,
experiences —
[I add PHYSICAL BODY and MIND]
these are the five things that make you, you.
“Bring to me all the people who are mine, whom I made for my glory, whom I formed and made.” (Isaiah 43:7 NCV)
your SHAPE reveals God’s purpose for you.
your SHAPE equips you to serve God.
your SHAPE shows God’s glory.
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All personalities have positive and negative traits – and sometimes one trait can be good and bad.
Messiness – also signifies creativity and the ability to take risks.
Selfishness – it may make people like you less, but you don’t have the stress of being a people pleaser who is known for Selflessness. You can say “no” to things that aren’t important, and stand your ground more often.
Ego – having self-confidence can turn into arrogance, thinking you are better than others. But self-confidence makes you a good leader, helps find a romantic partner and get ahead in life.
Shyness – people confuse it with weakness, but they can be observant and reflective, good listeners.
Distracted – it can be hard to focus, but it also means you can think and work outside the box, taking in a broader range of information.
Cynical – Always being critical can push people away, but also allows you to see things in a more detached manner, and protect you from scams and falsities.
Neuroticism – Responding to anxiety with an acute attention to detail, but with a conscientiousness that helps you excel in business and makes you a success in whatever you apply yourself to.
Thin Skin – you may not like criticism, but at least you hear it and consider it, and can weed out the truths you need to apply, as opposed to people who just block it out and rarely improve themselves.
Negativism – can be a downer, but some thinking about what might happen helps you to be prepared for the possibilities.
Laziness – although it may lead you to just sit around and not do anything, when mixed with creativity these people find the easier and more efficient way of doing things.
What are some of your seemingly “negative traits” that also provide positive outcomes?
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Daniel Dias, born with malformed upper limbs, a 26-year-old, two-time Paralympian swimmer from Brazil, now holds 10 world records and has won 22 medals. When he asked God why He had made Daniel that way,
He showed me that if I had two hands, or if I was a complete person, I would [not] be better or worse. I think that it isn’t this that defines us. I think that what defines is inside each one of us.
Many times I asked Him, “Why?” But today I ask, “What for?”
I think that success can jeopardize us in our walk with Christ. But I praise God for the parents that I have and for the family that I have, for always reminding me where I’m from and who I am. And I made the choice to have Christ in my life: I chose to be happy, I chose to live for Him. All this is happening because He is in my life.
I always look to remember and say that it’s not me, but Christ who lives in me. We can never forget this, because without Him we are nothing. People say, “You are always smiling, you never complain in any moment, you win everything.” It’s not me, it’s Christ. Everything in my life, everything – without one exception – in my sports life and in my personal life, is Christ.
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Psalm 139
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
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I was born with Down syndrome over 30 years ago. This makes some things very difficult for me. When I was younger, I spent a lot of time asking God, Why did you make me with Down Syndrome? Why can’t I be normal like other people?
I told Him all the time that I didn’t like having Down syndrome. I kept thinking that if only I didn’t have Down syndrome I would be happy. I thought that somehow God made a mistake when He made me. My Mom and Dad always told me they loved me so deeply, and that they could not love me any more, but somehow down deep in my heart I always wondered if they would love me more if I didn’t have Down Syndrome.
When I was in high school, the kids on the school bus were very mean to me. They laughed at me, and mocked me and they called me all kinds of bad names, and told me that even my parents couldn’t love me. That hurt me so deeply!
When I got off the school bus in the afternoon, I would be crying. My Mom met me at the door, and we would talk and pray every day. She told me that people used to say bad things about Jesus and call Him names too, so He understood exactly how I felt.
She told me that real truth is only found in God’s Word, and not in what other people say about you. She told me that if I could find anywhere in the Bible where God calls me bad names, or said I was a mistake; she would pay me $5,000. I spent a lot of time reading in the Bible to find out what God said about me. All the Scriptures I found said just the opposite, so I never did get the $5,000!
Some of my favorite Scriptures are: Psalm 139:14 where God says,“I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” God tells me in Psalm 17, “I am the apple of His eye.” InDeuteronomy 7:6, God tells me that I am “His treasured possession.” InPhilippians 4:8, God tells me to think about whatever is “true, noble, right, pure, and lovely.” I like to think about the truth that God tells me and spend my time thinking about what God says is true. The last Scripture I want to share is Psalm 119:114, “You are my refuge and my shield. I have put my hope in your Word.” My confidence and hope is in God. I know now that instead of being a mistake, I am the Lord’s treasured possession.
I like to memorize Scripture and fill my mind with the truth of who God says I am. This understanding has made all the difference in my life. Now I recognize that God has a plan for my life, and He created me just the way I am for His special purpose. I may still have Down syndrome, but now instead of saying “if only” I didn’t have Down syndrome, I say, “So what, I will glorify God just the way He made me.” I know He loves me and cares for me with His whole heart.
The Lord showed me that I am not a mistake, but I am a precious gift…His treasured possession. We have a choice to believe and fill our minds with God’s truth, which will change our hearts, or listen to what other people say and be sad. It is a choice we must each make. In Exodus 4:10, Moses tells God that he can’t do what God told him to do because he was slow of speech and tongue. In verse 11, the Lord said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go. I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” He made me just the way He made me for just the special purpose I was created for. There is special work He has for me to do that can only be done by me, just the way He created me.
If I spend my time wishing I was different, I will never get around to doing those things God wants me to do. Sometimes Satan tries to put thoughts into my head and tell me that I am no good and stuff like that. That’s when I remember the Scripture inJohn 10:10 that says, “The thief comes only to steal, and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the fullest.”
When Satan tries to put lies into my head, I beat him over the head with the truth of God. I do it over and over again as long as I have to. I know God has given me special gifts and talents, and my desire is to use them for His glory. I say it often and I mean it…I love my life!
If your heart is sad because you wish God had made you different, read in His Word the truth of what He says about you, believe it, and let Him change your heart. Nothing is impossible with God. He certainly did change my heart.