“God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do.”
Ephesians 2:10 GNBDC
Who are you? When asked this question, the first things that may come to mind are parent, student, friend, teacher. While those are all descriptions of who we are to and for others, they still don’t tell much about us as individuals. In the culture of “no days off”, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead”, it’s easy to focus on what we are doing but the more important question is, who are we being?
The most common response, when asked who we are is our job title. We can respond, I’m a student, supervisor or designer and we wouldn’t be wrong. I remember working as a customer service representative and being a college student, thinking that was who I was. Well, customer service paid the bills and being a student was a pathway to learning and attaining credentials, nothing more. Imagine us just viewing Jesus as a carpenter. I mean, that was His official title. It is easy to get lost in letting what we do define who we are but we are so much more than that.
Another response to who we are, is what we’ve been through. After surviving some of life’s hardships we may identify as someone that used to live in poverty, someone that survived domestic violence, someone that dropped out of high school or came from a broken home. Guess what? That’s not who we are either.
When we carry around what we’ve been through, we weigh ourselves down and can give ourselves standards that are way lower than what God has for us. Yes, that’s right, nothing from our pasts holds more weight than God’s purpose and calling on our lives. He is waaaay more powerful than our worst decision, His healing is stronger than the deepest wound we have from what’s behind us. We no longer have to own the generational flaws from our natural families when we accept our adoption. That’s right, we have the DNA of God and our big bro, Jesus now. He is just that good!
So, who are we? We are kind, healed, healing, curious, and learning. We are owning our fearlessness, growing, and evolving. We are silly, serious, scared at times, happy or sad. We are resilient, recovering, redeemed! We are who God says we are and owning the title, God’s child is the most powerful “yes” we can ever give.
We are not what we do. We are not what we’ve been through. We are who God says we are, His daughters and sons and that is something that no one on this earth can give us or ever take away. As we go through our days checking off items on our goal and tasks lists, remember that the most important task is that we are BEING who God created us and saved us to be.
Peace
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