What Is Your Identity

     We let much define us.  For some, it is relationships with friends and family.  What happens if your friends move away, as part of their own life?  What happens if fdamily members die?  We are given no certain number of days.  Does seperation from certain people mean that I am no longer me?
     We can also define ourself by our job.  Some of us are very good and excell at their job.  But what would happen if we lose our job?  We can be fired, laid off or our place of work simply go bankrupt and fold.  If I lose my job, am I no longer me?
     Some define themselves by volunteer activities, but what if we can no longer do these things.  Do we cease to exist?
     Sometimes, the world around us puts these things on us to label who we are.  Sometimes we choose them ourselves.  We label who we are because perhaps it gives us a level of control of who we are.  Often in life though, we can control little more going on in our life than how we choose to react to our circumstances.  And we tend to fear that which we can't control.
     We do have another option.  We have a God who dearly loves us.  He loved us so much that He took on flesh and blood, and then became our sin for us.  He did that so that we could once again be free to have a new identity, and identity that Je desires to give us but won't force on us.  That is the identity of "His child".  It is not and identity that we can earn, so we don't EVER have to worry about screwing up and losing it.  It is one that no one else gave to us, so no one on earth can take it away.  Only God can give it to us, and God will never take it away from you once you accept it.  We have these precious promises like "NEVER will I leave you or forsake you", and Jesus himself said about us "My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand".
     No matter what happens to us in life, no matter what our circumstances may be,no matter how bad we mess up or how alone we may feel, we can be ourself.  We can be God's child.  That identity can never be taken away.

Show Through

     I had a joke pop up in my email inbox today. It was about a little girl asking her mother about the sermon they had just heard. She told her mother that the pastor said that God is bigger than us and asked if this was true. Her mother replied that it was. Then she said that the pastor told them that God lives inside of us and asked if this was true also. Again, her mother said that it was.
The little girl looked confused and asked, "if God is bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn't He show through?" You can't help but smile at that kind of inquisitiveness, even though she appears to miss the pastor's point.
     Then I had to wonder, did she? Shouldn't God "show through" us? Of course He does among my church friends, but is He as visible when I am out in the rest of the world? If He isn't showing through, I need to ask the little girl's two questions.
     First, is God bigger than me? Not simply in size, but is God greater and more important than me? Obviously He is, but do I really believe it with all my heart? Does that truth still fill my heart with a sense of awe and reverence? Or have those become just words to me?
     In several places, the Bible calls us to reverence God. That word reverence is also translated fear, but not like terror that fills us with dread and a desire to flee and hide. It is more an awe that reminds me that He owes me nothing, I owe him all; He is huge and I and a speck; He is the source of all and the purpose for all.
     Secondly, does Jesus live in me, or more accurately, do I give Him full rights to live through me? If I am truly brought to awe at the immensity of who God really is; if I understand the depths of His love, that he would make a way to live inside of me and in relationship with me, how can i then not surrender to Him the right to live through me any way He desires?
     When we, His children, can rightly answer those two questions, God will certainly "show through".