I am more

The headlines in the grocery store tell me that I am not sexy enough, I don’t make enough money, I don’t wear the right clothes, and that my abs, my thighs, my chest, and just about every other part of me need a good bit of work. Basically, I am a lame excuse for a man. The television tells me that I don’t drive the right car, I don’t know enough trivia, and that my sense of humor is less than engaging. I am beginning to think that dull and boring is more exciting than me. My fellow Christians tell me that my musings are not engaging, my thoughts are not provoking, and my impact is minimal. You have to preach to at least 6,000 to achieve any of those. I could go on to what I hear from my friends, my family, my neighbors, but I won’t. It is just too painful. At the end of the day, it all amounts to pretty much the same thing. I am nothing.

Here is the funny thing about being nothing. Nothing has a big impact on how I live. I am hesitant to speak up. I am insecure in my relationships. I doubt everything I do. I question if I am able to do anything significant at all. Nothing sure does a lot in me. It guides how I speak, how I feel, what I do. When I am brutally honest, nothing has become everything for me. I am nothing and that is everything.

Maybe you get what I am talking about. You might not think that you are nothing, but I bet you could fill in the blank. What would you say if I were to ask you to state who you are? Go ahead. Here is your chance. I am ___________.

Chances are you just filled in the blank with something, something that resonates deep inside you, something that you picked up from grocery story headlines, the television, your friends, your family, maybe even your church. You fill in the blank just like I do, and how you fill in the blank is everything to you. It influences how you see yourself, how you speak, how you feel, even what you do. How you fill in that blank has become your identity. How do I know? I know because how I fill in the blank has become my identity. I am nothing.

Is this really who you are? No, really. Is this who you are? Fill in the blank once more and try it on for size. Better yet, go stand in front of the mirror and look yourself in the eye and say it. Go ahead. I am __________. How does it feel? Probably doesn’t feel very good. You might not have even been able to look yourself in the eye as you said it. Let me ask you. If you can’t look yourself in the eye and state who you are, is this who you are? Is shame, disgrace, fear, intimidation or any other disabling feeling in keeping with who we are as children of God? No, they are not. Here’s the truth about how you filled in the blank. However you filled in that blank, the truth is that you are more than that.

That’s right. You are more than the sum of what you read in the grocery store or see on television. You are more than what your parents told you or your friends pressure you to be. You are more than anything you have picked up and labeled yourself with. How you fill in the blank is not who you are. You are more. You are more because God has made you more. God never intended that you be who you are, and in Christ, he has moved to change who you are into who you were meant to be. Think of it this way. In Christ, God has made a way to change how you fill in the blank. New words go there now, words like loved, special, important, child of God.

Why don’t you try those on for size? Go ahead. Find that mirror again and fill in the blank once more. It might feel weird, but who said the truth always feels great first time around? You are more than how you have been filling in that blank and that more can become everything for you.

A fellow traveler,

Blake

What’s my next step?

We encourage you to consider engaging in the following as a way of handing off faith in your family.

Hand off a Christ-centered identity: In the movie The Help, Abilene says the following to Mae Mobely: “You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” In so doing, she daily reinforced an identity within the young child as a person of worth and value, something she did not receive anywhere else. We can do the same with our own children, recognizing the power of our words and actions in affirming a Christ-centered identity. You might consider developing a daily blessing using Christ-centered words which you might speak over your child. This blessing might be something like: You are loved. You are precious. You are unique. You are seen by God.

We encourage you to consider engaging in the following as a way of deepening your own faith.

Memorize and Meditate on 2 Corinthians 5.17-18: In Christ, we are more than any identity we have been given by the world and others around us. This week consider memorizing and meditating on 2 Corinthians 5.17-18. As you engage God in this way, allow the words or phrases with which you have identified yourself to come to the surface.  Acknowledge them and then release the to God, grasping to the reality that you have a new identity given to you by God.