Remember when Jesus walked up to the fig tree from a distance?

It had the appearance of leaves, so it gave the impression of life.

But when he reached for the fruit, there was nothing there.

And that's what angered him. Not that it didn't look good, but that it

promised something that it did not deliver. He said the same thing about the whitewashed

tombs. Beautiful on the outside, freshly painted, perfect from a distance, but inside nothing but dead men's bones.

First time I read that scripture, 15 years ago, I started bawling crying because I knew then

I didn't just want to look good from a distance, but I wanted to be a woman of substance.

You were not created just to look expensive. You were created to bear good fruit so that when

people get close to you, they don't just see decoration. They see depth. So then how do you become a woman

of substance? Because right now, the talk is all aesthetic this. You know, dress expensive,

look expensive. Now, don't get me wrong, and please don't twist my words. I love aesthetics.

I'm the type of person who wears neutrals all the time.

My grid is perfectly neutraled out.

I love aesthetics.

But the aesthetics is the cherry, the whipped cream, and the icing on top of the Sunday.

Now we could eat it like that,

but it wouldn't be as indulgent as having a whole Sunday.

And so what I've found is that we're focused

so much on the look instead of the identity

that influences the look.

Because image without identity is extremely hollow. But image as a result of identity is what

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