Identity


I was recently challenged by a message which has been on my mind ever since.  What is my identity?  When I first meet someone, how do I introduce myself?  What is the first thing I want them to know about me?  Moreover, I have discovered I have a shifting identity based upon the person I am meeting.  Even my blog profile demonstrates this; I am a nurse, a writer, a Mom, a widow, a student, a traveler and a Christian woman.  Ultimately, though, I should always find my identity in being a child of God, redeemed, saved and dearly loved. How would I be different, how would my world be different if I maintained that base, regardless of the company I keep? 

We all want to be loved or at least liked.  The great news is that we are!  In my loneliness, I often think of what I don’t have (the shoulder to lean on, the hug of a good man, a hand to hold) can I change my thinking?  Can I remember what I do have?  (The love of Christ, redemption, salvation and eternity in heaven).  Living spiritually in a temporal world is the cross we bare as Christians. This is what it is to die daily to Christ, to pick up our crosses and follow him. Am I strong enough for the task?  Not in the least.  Yet, daily I pray that he will help me.  Usually my prayers consist of asking for a crutch like giving me another mate, AND THEN I will be able to do it.  Wrong!  Yes, we are to be in community with each other but not above being in community with God himself.

I have no great words of wisdom as to how to do this.  We used to have a sign on our refrigerator that said, ‘If you don’t like the way you feel, change the way you think.” I want to try to start there.  Instead of seeing spiritual living as a challenge, I want to look at it as an opportunity. Instead of looking for what I don’t have, I hope to focus on what I do have.  Instead of feeling unloved and alone, I will recognize the love of Christ and that I am never alone. May God grant me the consistency to follow through on these ideas.  May God bless you too!  We are the children of God, rejoice!
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Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 28, 2012 at 7:49 AM

    Jody you always hit the nail on the head.

    ReplyDelete

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