Who am I? It's a question most of us ask several times within our lifetime. We watch movies and TV shows that portray characters that are larger than life but are seeking their purpose. We hear of celebrities who fall off the "deep end" because being famous was not enough to satisfy them. We read news articles of middle school and high school kids who choose to take their lives because they cannot resolve the answer to this question. We buy into the trends that are here today and gone tomorrow simply to fill ourselves and our time with what the world says will make us happy. But happiness is a myth. The thing is, there is nothing that we could chase after in this life that will ever be enough to make us totally happy. We will always want something else. We will always want to be somewhere else. We will always want to advance to the next phase.
The good news is that there is someone who satisfies: Jesus. He promises that even through our suffering He is faithful and that He is there walking through the hardships with us. He promises that in the very depths of our loneliness and our questioning, He is preparing a place for us. 2 Corinthians 4:16 says, "So we do not lose heart. Though the outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day." He is renewing us! Our outer shell is fleeting. The trends and definitions of beauty and self constantly change. These earthly things take our focus off of our Lord and place it on us. But, when we do that, we are setting ourselves up for even more hardship! It is not because Jesus promised a life with Him would be easy, in fact He promises the opposite in John 16:33 saying, "in the world you will have tribulation." However, the best part is that the verse doesn't stop there! It goes on to say, "but take heart; I have overcome the world."
Jesus has already defeated conformity to a human definition of acceptance. When He died on the cross for us, He redeemed us. He made our purpose for this life about Him, not about us. And what a relief! The pressure is taken off my shoulders to be someone or something because I already have a purpose, I'm His. He has a plan for my life. He has a purpose for why I am here. So, even though I still sometimes struggle with feeling at sea in a world that is pointing so many different directions. At the end of the day, I know Who I serve and that tells me Whose I am. So go ahead, He is waiting for you with open arms. Who are you? You are His.
Jeremiah 29:13 "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart."
