“Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.”

-Brennan Manning

Identity has always been a struggle. It's so easy tie our identity to a percentage a top a test, to numbers on a scale, to the beauty products we use, the tags on our clothes or the followers we have on Twitter. It's easy to define ourselves by the women who wish they were us or the guys they wish that they had us. It's incredibly easy to place our value in our talents or in our friendships. Often as I look in the mirror, I catch myself asking about my identity. Am I good enough? Am I loved? Am I respected and valued? Am I important? Am I smart enough, pretty enough etc? These are questions that cut to our focus on who we say we are, who we think we should be and how we think others think we should be. None of these things are bad in themselves, but they can be devastating if we adopt them as the crux. Our identity will drive our actions and direct the course of our lives. We can be apt to self destructive habits and behaviors in the pursuit of a perfect ideal. We can become approval addicts chasing the whims and gratifications of others. This road leads to some very deep, dark places to pain, depression, to throwing up in the middle of the night,starvation, the overwelming fatigue of not measuring up and ever widening hole within us.

.Because those things will fail us, time and time again. Our friendships will strain and grow distant. Our beauty will fade and waste away with time and age. Our talents and potentials will reach their limits. There will always be another person smarter, prettier, thinner, wealthier and more popular than us. There will always be someone that is more together, more successful or more graceful than we are. We are not perfect, we are deeply flawed individuals.

It's in these times we can retreat to inadequacy and insecurity if we have placed all of who we are in light of those failing things. See the thing about comparison is, that is steals our joy. Comparison focuses on all that we are not and all that we don't have instead of the truth of who are and the magnitude of our blessings. If I spend my time coveting and chasing the gifts and blessings of others I fail to appreciate and value just how full my cup is. We forget that just as we are imperfect and flawed balls of clay, so are those we envy and idealize. They struggle in the midst of chaos as we do.

So who are we?


We have established that this is not defined by mere physical things, not by genetic blessings or curses or by our accomplishments or lack there of. You and I are deeply loved. We are cherished. We are beautiful. We are smart. We are kind, We are funny. We are unique and worthy of love and affection. We are never too much and always enough. We are always good enough,smart enough, pretty enough etc. We are worth so much more than the scores on our tests, the numbers on the scales, the friends we have or the tags on our clothes.

Regardless of who you and I think that we are, the heart of who we are is that we are loved beyond all surpassing by someone who died for us.

Wether you're a homecoming queen or a high school dropout.

Wether you have all of your life together or you feel like it's falling apart

Wether you feel like such a winner, or you feel like the world's greatest failure.

Wether you love your life and everything you are or you can't even look at yourself in the mirror anymore

Wether you have throngs of people who love you, or you have never had a soul to call friend

You are powerful, capable and loved. You are strong. The only thing that defines us is our identity in Christ. It's easy for our past hurtful relationships or traumatic pasts to tell us that we aren't good enough. But in Ephesians I, we see that Jesus “chose us in Him before the creation of the world” (1:4) and that we were “included in Christ when you heard the message of truth ... when you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal” (1:13).Once we have been called and adopted into His family, our old labels fade and fall away.

Being in Christ means that you are a child of God, loved and adored above all things for the glory of God who is above all things. Being deeply loved and truly known frees us out of the shame of our mistakes, the bitterness of our past, the weight of failure and constantly missing the mark. It's a great freedom from the opinions of others and from the opinions of yourself. If the heart of who I am is loved and cherished by the Creator, my performance isn't all of me. my past isn't all of me, my success, my failure, the things that I treasure or the deepest darkest secrets I hide do not define me. It's nothing I deserve or earned so I can't live in holy fear of losing it instead I can live life in freedom, life to the fullest. Defined by being In Christ allows us to fully see ourselves, and also all of those around us. As we drop the labels around us, we can see beyond the labels of others and love them fully for all they are.

Abba, Abba, may we always remember all we are in the light of grace. May we remember how overflowing our cups are when we feel empty. Remind us that we are loved and heard in the midst the desolate, barren desert places. When the storms and gales of life press in and filled us with great anxiety, insecurity and fear, remind us that we are Yours.