let's shake things up.

hey everyone. so i just finished reading "do hard things" the other day and for some reason i thought of one of my friends and remembered that she had struggled with anorexia in her early mid-teens, and it got me thinking. girls these days get really caught up on self-image and are so worried about wearing the right clothes and having the right hair and the perfect body. and this is largely due to the media, but i'll be honest, they get it put in their heads from us guys too. i know of too many relationships that fell apart because the guy was too caught up on looks. and it makes me sad that stuff like that happens. cause there are soooo many ladies out there who are beautiful just being themselves. i would never want to change that about them.

and when the media says you have to look a certain way to be accepted, well... screw them. ladies? you ARE beautiful. period. guys? look at the ladies for who they are, not for what they look like. cause trust me, they won't always have their looks. neither will you. heck, i'm only 20 and i'm already losing mine. ;) girls these days seem to not have much positive self-esteem. and as i was thinking, i was like, "hey... why not do something about it?"

i mean how cool would it be if one guy walked up to one random girl a day and told her she was beautiful? most girls would be floored by that. it would probably make their day. if that guy did that for once a day for a year he would touch 365 girls lives. ONE GUY! if 9,000,000 guys did that, it would take them a little over a year to tell every woman and girl in the ENTIRE WORLD. i know 9,000,000 seems like a lot, but think about it. there's what? 6.5 billion people in the world? probably 3 billion are guys? i dunno, something like that. but think about it... 9,000,000. that's like 0.3% of the population of guys on the planet. not that many.

guys struggle with self-image and self-esteem just as much as ladies do. why do you think we always try to seem macho or so sure of ourselves? 99.9% of the time, it's because we're the exact opposite; we don't want anyone to see our weaknesses. i know in my personal life, i've struggled with how i view myself due to insecurities that pretty much every guy struggles with. and i really think it all comes to this: we as humans struggle with the same insecurities because they all stem from the same root problem.

we don't find our indentities in Christ.

"...but how do we reconcile an awareness of personal evil with the fundamental human need to be valued for who we are? we need a sense of worth, yet the more authentic we become the less we see value in ourselves. how can we elevate our sense of self-worth without escaping from the dark realities within? that's where the cross comes in.

"how much is a human being worth? it depends on the context. if they were to melt me down into the chemicals of which my body is made, i understand i would be worth about twelve dollars (make that thirteen, i've added a few pounds lately). the average American, however, is valued by his or her employer at a much higher level than that, something like $50,000 dollars a year. but suppose you were a great basketball player like Michael Jordan. suddenly the value jumps to tens of millions of dollars a year. and if you were the nerdy designer of the software everyone in the world uses, you would be valued at tens of billions of dollars (Bill Gates)!

"you see, we are valued in terms of others. but according to the bible human value is infinitely higher than the value we assign to each other. according to the bible, Jesus was worth the whole universe (He made it), yet He knows all about us and loves us as we are. when He died on the cross, He established the value of the human person. when the Creator of the universe and everyone in it (including all the great athletes and movie stars that people often worship) decides to die for you and me, it places an infinite value on our lives. and since the resurrected Jesus will never die again, my value is secure in Him as long as i live.

"so the cross provides a true and stable sense of value. this is what makes the story of that friday in Jerusalem so very special. the cross is not just another atrocity. it is about God's willingness to take on human flesh and reveal Himself where we are. it is about the value that the human race has in the eyes of God."

-http://www.biblicalperspectives.com/endtimeissues/eti_90.html

so that's what this is all about. starting a movement that makes an effort to change how people view themselves by showing them how Christ views them. as a wonderful, beautiful, and above all, loved creation. we are beautiful because Christ sees us as beautiful.

but this isn't a call for men to be chivalrous to women (we do need more of that though) or for women to reassure men (although that would be nice too). it's a call for people to have respect and love for themselves and for others because that's how Christ views us. so tell all your friends, all the kids at school, or at a show, or wherever. whoever you meet. doesn't matter if they're a guy or a girl. all that matters is that we tell people that they are beautiful and loved because of Jesus. that's all that matters. and it is going to take getting out of our comfort zones. it'll be hard for a lot of people, me included. but i'm committing myself to doing this. and if you want to join me on this journey, then i'd love to have you.

so this is up to you guys (and gals). please tell all your friends about it. if we want to make a change in this world run by the media, then it's up to us.

guys? girls?

let's get the word out.

hollywood, you can shove it.

God bless.

zach.

the goal: to help human beings realize that they are unfathomably valuable. that they are beautiful for who they are, not for what they look like. to help them realize that Christ views them as 1,000,000 times more beautiful and important than their outer beauty could ever be. to tell at least one person a day that they are beautiful, with the end result hopefully being an all-around better self-image and self-value for everyone, because they realize how Jesus sees them. every human being is worth more than we could ever put a tag on. many people just don't believe that. i say we shake things up.