steady.tranquilizer.peaceful-presence.easy-going.constant.
These are the words that were spoken by both my leaders and squad mates to describe me at training camp last week. Words I would have never guessed for my self. Not because they’re not true, but because I would word them very differently. Instead, I would have said: boring, apathetic, passive, unperturbed and unenthusiastic.
Why do we do this to ourselves? Isn’t Jesus so good to us by putting people in our life to call out our strengths when we’re too blind to see them as strengths? If you’re not around people who do this for you, it’s time to find a better community (Future post on the blessings of living in Christian community in the works). But seriously guys, too often we let comparison steal our true identity because we’re too busy chasing after the one someone else walks in. Can I tell you something? Your identity is yours, it’s unique and handcrafted by the Creator of the universe. Like, what?! That’s SO cool. If you’re not pleased with the identity you have, I guarantee it’s because you have a false sense of who you are (like I did) because you’re either not surrounding yourself with people who call the best out of you and/or you’re not spending time trying to see yourself in the way God sees you. I’ve been guilty of both, but all of this changed at training camp.
I started to see myself in the way that others see me and more importantly in the way God sees me. I’ve realized how important what I have to offer is to the body of Christ and that God wants to use me, right where I am with the gifts he’s given me. I’m learning that these gifts include having a steady personality that’s not easily swayed by emotions or caught up in drama, that can be a warm presence in a room without being the loudest presence in the room, and that can offer consistency, dependability and humility.
Our identity also comes with a calling; a purpose placed over our lives. How many of you know that when a craftsman makes a table, he doesn’t craft it to merely bring it into existence, collecting dust in a storage shed, nor does he make it to do the job of a rocking chair or a TV stand. No, it was created for a purpose: a place where meals would be eaten, homework would be finished, and coffee to be served on. You too were created for a purpose that is deeply connected to the inner-workings of who God made you to be.
So, I challenge you. I challenge you to find your identity in Christ. Truly believe it when God says that he “knitted you together in your mother’s womb“, “you are fearfully and wonderfully made“, that he has “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans for a hope and a future” and that he “knew you, set you apart and appointed you before you were ever born“. Because you are all these things and so much more. Then once you’ve discovered your God given identity, walk out the calling he’s given you. I promise you, nothing will be more fulfilling than when you are doing exactly what you were created to do.
"Perhaps this is the moment for which you have been
created." -Esther 4:14
Scriptures from above:
-Psalm 139:13 and 14
-Jeremiah 29:11
-Jeremiah 1:5
