Who are you? What do you place your identity in? “I’m a ________. “ Fill in the blank. We could place our identity in our abilities. Our career, success, or finances. Being popular. Our personality. (Introvert or Extravert) Our kids or grandkids. What we believe or don’t believe. Politics. How much we travel. Our exercise abilities. Our home. How busy we are. What we’re good at. These are just a few ways we find our identity.
Ephesians 2:10 says you and I are God’s handiwork. The word ‘handiwork’ means “God’s masterpiece” made in the image of God to reflect his image. Psalm 139:13 tells us that none of us are an accident or mistake! There were times I thought I was a mistake because I was a surprise baby and placed in adoption. I wasn’t “supposed” to be in this world. I know differently now. We are all made with a special identity! God spoke to Jeremiah with these beautiful words that mean so much to me: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.” (Jeremiah 1:5)
When I came to know Jesus, I experienced new birth in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17 states “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” My identity from that time forward was in Christ, not everything I'm tempted to place my identity in. I don’t need to look around horizontally for all sorts of things to find my identity. I get my identity by looking to Jesus. (vertically)
Sometimes, I don’t think we live in the identity of who we are. We fall prey to all the horizontal identities. The trouble is, we’re on a lifelong search to make it. To find an identity that sticks. We can end up living a superficial life, one filled with emptiness and hope in the here and now.
Consider this story of “The Lion Who Believed He Was a Sheep”:
One day a farmer was walking back from the forest. He came across a little lion cub. So, he brought the lion cub back home and gave it milk, water, and some food. Didn’t know what to do with it, put it with all the sheep that he had. Well, every day this kept happening, where he would give him the food, play with him a little bit, and then when the time came, he would put it with the sheep.
The time came, the cub grew a little bit bigger. Started going out in the fields, playing with the sheep, playing with the lambs.
One day, a really big lion came out of the jungle. And when the sheep heard the roar, they all scrambled hiding wherever they could, because they were afraid. The lion that had grown up with the sheep also did the same. The big lion stepped out of the forest seeing this lion trying to hide. Came over to him and said, Why are you hiding? He said, “You will eat me.” The big lion said, “I am not going to eat you. Do you know who you are? Do you know that you are not a sheep, you are a lion.” The little lion said, “Whatever you say is fine with me, but please don’t eat me.”
Having seen, that this lion was not going to be convinced, the big lion took the little lion to a lake. And said, “Look at yourself, look at this reflection and see what you see.” And when the little lion looked at his reflection he said, “I am like you. Not like them.”
The big lion said, “Right, you are a lion.”
So, the little lion said, “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you so much.” And the lion said, “Why are you thanking me? I didn’t do anything. All I did was show you who you already were. I didn’t create something new here. I didn’t take a sheep and turn it into a lion. I took a lion and showed the lion, that you are a lion, not a sheep.” (As told by Bill Johnson)
If you know Jesus, your identity is in Christ. No matter what happened to you in the past or what labels others have placed on you, God looks at you with nothing but love. There is no sickness, no broken relationship, no abuse, no person that can steal you away from God’s love for you.
Maybe it’s time to live in your true identity.
When I came to know Jesus, I experienced new birth in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17 states “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” My identity from that time forward was in Christ, not everything I'm tempted to place my identity in. I don’t need to look around horizontally for all sorts of things to find my identity. I get my identity by looking to Jesus. (vertically)
Sometimes, I don’t think we live in the identity of who we are. We fall prey to all the horizontal identities. The trouble is, we’re on a lifelong search to make it. To find an identity that sticks. We can end up living a superficial life, one filled with emptiness and hope in the here and now.
Consider this story of “The Lion Who Believed He Was a Sheep”:
One day a farmer was walking back from the forest. He came across a little lion cub. So, he brought the lion cub back home and gave it milk, water, and some food. Didn’t know what to do with it, put it with all the sheep that he had. Well, every day this kept happening, where he would give him the food, play with him a little bit, and then when the time came, he would put it with the sheep.
The time came, the cub grew a little bit bigger. Started going out in the fields, playing with the sheep, playing with the lambs.
One day, a really big lion came out of the jungle. And when the sheep heard the roar, they all scrambled hiding wherever they could, because they were afraid. The lion that had grown up with the sheep also did the same. The big lion stepped out of the forest seeing this lion trying to hide. Came over to him and said, Why are you hiding? He said, “You will eat me.” The big lion said, “I am not going to eat you. Do you know who you are? Do you know that you are not a sheep, you are a lion.” The little lion said, “Whatever you say is fine with me, but please don’t eat me.”
Having seen, that this lion was not going to be convinced, the big lion took the little lion to a lake. And said, “Look at yourself, look at this reflection and see what you see.” And when the little lion looked at his reflection he said, “I am like you. Not like them.”
The big lion said, “Right, you are a lion.”
So, the little lion said, “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you so much.” And the lion said, “Why are you thanking me? I didn’t do anything. All I did was show you who you already were. I didn’t create something new here. I didn’t take a sheep and turn it into a lion. I took a lion and showed the lion, that you are a lion, not a sheep.” (As told by Bill Johnson)
If you know Jesus, your identity is in Christ. No matter what happened to you in the past or what labels others have placed on you, God looks at you with nothing but love. There is no sickness, no broken relationship, no abuse, no person that can steal you away from God’s love for you.
Maybe it’s time to live in your true identity.
You've got a lion inside of you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4juDJEZvjs
Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain of the YMCA of Greater San Antonio.
Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain of the YMCA of Greater San Antonio.
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