CCC 2010 Day 3 Session 7

Self image. Identity. Truly important components in knowing who Jesus is. Bob Christopher shared today about a man from Iowa who was nicknamed "Monkey Face" in elementary school, and carried that name all through his school career. This man was in a depressed state.
We often allow other's opinions to identify us. If not their opinions, then perhaps our job/careers. Maybe we label ourselves from our religious affiliation. Or, it's who we know. I had this label growing up. My identity was "The Game Warden's Daughter". That identity afforded us some graces from the local law enforcement officers, but, it also minimized our choices of dating in our teenage years. Bob reminded us today, how important that it is that we know--keep it in the forefront of our mind, that our identity is a child of God. Period. Jobs may come and go, we may change religious affiliations, and opinions of others will change like the wind. The only stable identity we have, is knowing we're in Him, and are a child of God. What we base our identity on, will influence our behavior. The more we depend on Him and his love, the less we care about the opinions of others. Truly a freedom in knowing our identity.

An 'aha' moment I also had was the idea of conformity versus non conformity. While we might arrogantly puff out our chest and say, "I'm not going to be like 'them'... I refuse to conform", aren't we in essence saying, "I'm going to conform myself to those that are also not conforming to 'the group'"? Either way, we're CONforming. The prefix "con" is a variation of "com", which means 'with; together, jointly'. We're aligning ourselves up with some group, in some fashion. We should be TRANSformed by the renewing of our minds. The prefix trans- means "into another state or place; surpassing" let's go beyond this frail humanity, and align ourselves with God who loved us unconditionally.

A thought was offered up: Fearful people are scared to make a decision. Scared of failure, or making the 'wrong' one. Scared of hurting someone they love by making the wrong choice. Reliance on God says that "He'll work all things together for good". Of course, desire to make the right choice. If we wind up making the wrong choice, instead--that's okay. He'll cause all things to work together for good. Knowing our identity frees us up to live as a child of God.