Sandpaper People Book

             

                 Chapter 1 

Be Loving: Recognize Their Worth

Page 14: SANDPAPER PEOPLE DESPERATELY NEED someone who will look beyond their abrasive behavior and rough exterior to recognize their worth. Somewhere along the way, sandpaper people have allowed someone or something to assign an identity to them that is false. Parents, friends, family members, or even enemies have shaped a distorted identity, producing a sandpaper person. As a result, sandpaper people live a life they were never intended to live, bound to an unhealthy self-image and having no concept of who they really are or what they can possibly become. Desperate to fit in, they try on different identities like new clothes and wonder why none of them fit. Sandpaper people have either not heard or refuse to believe the good news that their identity was established before the world began-in the heart and mind of God.

The words of Psalm 139 beautifully express the heart of God toward each and every one of us.

You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 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, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be (verses 13-16).

Page 15 : A healthy self-image is not one of pride or arrogance, but one that coincides with God's viewpoint. It is choosing to accept God's evaluation, learning to see ourselves as God sees us, agreeing with who we are in His eyes, and giving Him permission to make us what He designed us to be. In His eyes, every person is valuable sandpaper and all. Sinful and broken, wounded and sick, sand paper people are why He came. With tenacity and stubborn love, He pursues those whom others only shun--like the woman at the well.

Page 36 v STEP 5: SERVE OTHERS

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves (Romans 12:20).

Because I am basically a self-centered person, the last thing I usually want to do is to serve someone who is hard to get along with and rubs me the wrong way. In fact, the way I figure it, they should be serving me in order to make up for all of the grief they have caused. Sandpaper people are hard to serve and hard to help because they rarely, if ever, think of themselves as someone in need. The needs of others are not high on their priority list, but control and power definitely are. To manipulate is to succeed. Sandpaper people honestly believe the world does or should revolve around them. It doesn't seem to matter if the audience is applauding or jeering. Either way, they win.