Identity

Identity.  Where does our identity come from?  My identity is not found in my family.  My identity is not found in being in a group of friends.  My identity is not found in a college I attend.  My identity cannot be found in my credentials, my college degree or lack thereof.  My identity is not found in the grades I get in school.  My identity is not found in the work I do.  My identity is not found in my accomplishments.  My identity is not even found in ministry or service.  My identity can only be found in Christ.  My identity is found in the fact that I am a child of the king!  I am a daughter of God - the God of the universe!  It is as this truth really sinks into my mind that I can be secure and confident even if everything else in my life was to be stripped from me; because as a child of God, I am royalty.

I remember the journey of finding my identity in Christ starting when I was seventeen and eighteen.  I was struggling with health challenges, that seemed to set me back in life.  I remember how frustrating it was to have to make myself lay down and take a nap, because I didn't have the energy to keep going.  As a result of my health issues, I couldn't leave home to go to college when I wanted to.  Then later, I couldn't stay at college when I wanted to.  It was a quiet time - a wilderness experience - learning to be still, when I'd rather be busy working.  Learning to lean on Jesus as my Best Friend, when I'd rather be with my group of friends back in school!

Change has been a of a pattern of my life.  Every time I went through a changing circumstances, I felt like I was going through an identity crisis!  It was like, "God who am I now?  What am I doing here?  Why am I here?"  I really felt that way when I came back home from my first summer of canvassing.  I drove into Karlstad, Minnesota where my family had moved to, but I didn't want to be there!  I was pulled away from everything and everyone I knew and loved, except my immediate family.  But it was there that I had the opportunity which I had always dreamed of - I was able to be a teacher.  No it wasn't the easiest year, I missed my friends, the long cold winter could be depressing at times, but there was nothing more fulfilling to me than seeing the smiles on my students' faces!  I made three little girls happy!  I loved my work teaching, and I spent more time in God's word then ever before because I was teaching children about Jesus!

This past week I had the opportunity to visit my family and then go to ASI with them.  It was awesome to reconnect with old friends who were in High School when I first started college, and other good friends from school.  It is so neat to see how God has been leading in their lives.  It  also made me realize that each person's life is different.  No two people are the exactly the same.  We all have a unique path of life to walk that Jesus is taking us on.  Our identity can't come from trying to be like someone else, or from trying to fit a certain box for what young people "should" be doing with their life.

As I flew back home to Tennessee where my church family to do Bible work with, I was impressed to just embrace the fact that I am called to do Bible work and be excited for the opportunity.  Having said that though, I also realized that working for God isn't where I can find my identity either.  Identity can only be found in God!  It's easy for me to try to make a savior out of the work I'm doing.  What  happens then when Bible studies cancel?  What when people are not home?  What if not as many baptisms result from my work as I would like?  Can I still be thankful?  My joy must come from serving God faithfully, not in seeing the results of my work.  When my identity is in Christ, I can be thankful in every change, and every new situation.

I have come to realize that change is something that everyone goes through in life, no matter who you are or how old you are.  Everyone struggles with their identity to some degree or anther, at some point in their life.  The woman who's lost her husband...the man's who's wife left him...the person who's friend or family member just died...the college graduate....They all have something in common.  They are either going through a changing circumstance, or facing a loss, that challenges them to find their identity in something deeper than anything on this earth!

No matter who we are, what age, or station in life we are at, God is challenging us to find our total fulfillment in Him.  He says, "I have created you, I have called you by my name You are my mine."  (Isaiah 43:1).  He says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love," (Jeremiah 31:3), and He is pleading to us saying, "My love for You is enough to give you complete security, your identity can be totally rooted in Me!"  I love the way Paul states this fact in Colossians 2:10: "And ye are complete in Him."  In Christ we have the opportunity for our identity to be rooted securely!  Not rooted in ourselves, but rooted deeply in being who God intends for us to be.  We were created in God's image, and it is through a relationship with Christ that God's image is restored in us, only then can we reach our true fulfillment.  "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God."  (1 John 1:3).  "Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.  The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ."  Romans 8:15-16.  Here we find our true identity - in the fact that we are children of God.  We can be secure in our identity, for we are Christ's, and we have an identity that will never change throughout eternity!  

"Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away."

-Isaiah 41:9