My friend Courtney had this idea over the summer to have a series of guest blog posts and she choose ME to be the first one!
She was reading What’s So Amazing About Grace this summer and wanted to allow random people she encountered to have a platform to tell their story. This is the excerpt that inspired this little project:
At a seminar, Manning referred to Jesus’ closest friend on earth, the disciple named John, identified in the Gospels as “the one Jesus loved”. Manning said, “If John were to be asked, What is your primary identity in life? he would not reply, I am a disciple, an apostle, an evangelist, an author of one of the four gospels but rather, I am the one Jesus loves.” What would it mean I ask myself if i too came to the place where i saw my primary identity in life as “the one Jesus loves? How differently would I view myself at the end of a day?
You can find my response below.
When we started school our teachers would ask us the simple question of what we wanted to be when we grow up. I can’t recall ever hesitating before answering this question, even if my answer changed everyday. (I did wish to be a princess for a good part of my childhood though.) As we mature we begin to ask an even harder question, who am I? How we answer this question will dictate how we live our lives. That sounds a little intense but this question will impact what we do for a job, who or if we marry, what we do in our spare time, what we go to school for, or if we will even go to school.
This summer while attending Summer in the City at Passion City Church we, a group of young adults, were asked what we wanted to do with our lives—you could only hear hesitation and mumbles. No one had a clear direction or exact answer. As I enter my last semester of college this question has never held such pressure or immediacy. When among friends I joke that I want to “storm the gates of hell” or “change the world”. These are not the kinds of answers “respectable adults” would give. I think something got mixed up as we grew up. Somehow what we do and who we are became the same question.
While I was in high school I had the rebellious stage where I tested and tried everything my conservative southern Baptist family had ever taught me, either directly or subconsciously. I thought the party girl was my identity, so when Christ met me in the middle of my drunken depressed state I wanted to run and hide. I knew who I was, a mess. Yet something incredible happened. The God of the universe, creator of all things, including me, looked at me and said that is not who you are. You are my daughter. Period. I wish I could explain how this simple misunderstanding of identity has radically changed my life. Sin does not define who I am. What I do does not define who I am. My performance does not define who I am. MY worth, my identity is found in Jesus Christ alone.
I am the one Jesus loves.
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If you like to share your story check out her blog at iamtheonejesusloves.wordpress.com or message me.
