Who Am I?

I ask age old questions:

Who am I?
What makes me who I am?
What defines me?
 
It seems too complicated to put into words. 

I fill many roles.  From the beginning I was, and still am, daughter, granddaughter and sister.  I am now wife and mother and aunt.  I am teacher and sensei and employee.  I am friend many times over.  Do my family and friends define me?

I do many things: I parent, work, teach, cook and clean house occasionally, garden and plant some, read, study and learn, walk, drive, listen, herd chickens and a dog and some cats, train, watch Dr Who, crochet and knit.  Does what I do define me?

I go many places: home, church, work, dojo, store, errands, my kid’s classes and activities, Texas, Mississippi, Hungary, Romania.  Does where I go or where I’ve been define me?

I love many things: chocolate, coffee, tea candles, hiking, plants, foraging, reading, karate, family, Church, Bible.  Does what I love define me?

I want to be many things: strong, confident, invincible, smart, brilliant, well-read, well-travelled, happy, at peace, wealthy, perfect.  Does what I want to be define me?

Many things have happened to me in my life.  Good things and bad, sin I’ve done and sin done to me, good and bad works, hard and painful things, fun and happy things, successes and failures.  Do those things define me?

I don’t like any of those lists.  They change at the whim of other people and outside circumstances.  I myself change with each passing year, physically, hormonally and emotionally.  The world changes around me, culture, economy, government.  And still the question remains.  Who am I?  What defines me?  What one thing or person in all this stuff is capable of answering that question?  What one thing or person listed above is always true?  I change, how I feel changes, what I like changes.  In all the changes of my life, what one thing or person never changes? 

God.  His Word.  That’s all.  Literally.  That is the only thing that never ever changes.  And what’s really cool is that He talks about me in His Word.  Really.  Me.  And not only does He talk about me, He defines me.  Check this out.

I was dead in sin.

But God:

chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world
predestined me to be adopted me as His child, in Christ
blessed me in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places
redeemed me through the blood of Christ
forgave my trespasses in the death of Christ
lavished His grace on me, in Christ
made known to me the mystery of His will
gave me a glorious inheritance in Christ
made me to the praise of His glory
sealed me with the Holy Spirit
revealed Himself to me
enlightened my heart
called me to hope
raised me from spiritual death
worked in me with the same mighty power that He used to raise Christ from the dead
seated me with Christ in heaven
gave me Christ as my head
made me part of a church body that is His body
filled me
will show me in the coming ages the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward me in Christ
saved me by grace through faith in Christ, not through anything I have to do
created me to walk in good works in the power of Christ in me

As a Believer, God defines me.  He created me, He bought me with the blood of Christ, He has a right to define me.  And that whole awesome list is what God says is true about me.  Not my past, not my activities, not other people, not the circumstances I live in.  The list of what God has done for me and in me and through me - that is what defines me.  That is what I hang on to.  God hanging on to me.  All that other stuff will pass away.  But the list that God makes about me in the book of Ephesians will always be true.

Thank you Jesus.  Thank you.

 

©Rebecca Givens, 04/28/14