Who am I? That is a question I have been called to ponder many times throughout my life. Haven’t we all? All over the world people ask: “Tell me about yourself!” Job interviews, friendships, dating relationships…people want to know who we are! I am a daughter, sister, wife, mother, lay minister, co-worker, friend, aunt…the list goes on and on! All of these titles are true, they are all part of who I am, but they dull in comparison to my one true identity…I am a child of God, and I am a beloved daughter of the King, and He is well pleased with me!
This past weekend we celebrated the Baptism of our Lord, and it is imperative that we also ponder on what our baptism did for us! Our baptism gave us the one, single most important identity we will ever have: an adopted son/daughter of God. Folks, THAT means something! When we are baptized it’s not just symbolism of water, oil, and becoming parishioners. Yes, all of that happens, but we are given a new birth as adopted sons/daughters of God and that is where we are to find our ever-important identity.
I remember feeling absolutely lost after I left my job in the church to stay at home and be “just” a wife and mother! Why? Because I fell into the trap that my identity fell on what I did and not on who I was. It is an easy trap to fall into! If I had been truly rooted in being a beloved daughter of Jesus, my world would not have been so shaken up! The devil works overtime to make us value what we do before the important role of who we are. The devil makes us believe that success, money, and friends are more important than having a successful relationship with Jesus Christ. What does success really look like? God calls us to know we are His, to trust that He will take care of us, and all we must do is focus on building our relationship with Him…doing only what He calls us to do, nothing more, nothing less! This does NOT mean that we expect God to send us a paycheck by sitting back and doing nothing. It DOES call me to be in such a deep relationship with Him that I can hear, know, and do what He is calling of me. He will call each of us in different ways and He will use all of us differently.
Being an authentic child of God means that I must be so grounded in being His beloved and spending time fostering my relationship as His daughter that I will hear where He is calling me to serve Him each day, knowing that His calling may change at any moment and being humble enough to go where He sends me…not where I necessarily where I want to go! Two years ago, I didn’t want to leave my job to be a stay-at-home wife and mama, but He called me to do that! Now, I can’t imagine leaving home to work full-time again…but if He called…I would go! If I truly trust that my identity is a beloved child of God, then I know that His plan is always better than my own!
May 2022 help us root ourselves in our one, true identity. May we spend our time reflecting on whose we are and less time on what we do!
