Hello, My Name Is ...

This is my third time participating in this link up, and it's by far one of my favorites.

{Thanks, Kerrie & Kerry!} 

Each time, it causes me to really pause and reflect. What is my identity? Who am I to you, God? All good questions that I really should be asking myself each and every day. Because the answers to those questions, they change everything.

They change how we look at other people, as those we can serve instead of those who can affirm us. They change the way we serve, as something we are blessed to do instead of something we have to do. And they change the way we feel about God, turning Him from a distant big figure to a near Big Father. 

This round of Hello, My Name Is comes at a good time for me. I'm slap-bam in the middle of a season of change. The kind of change that I can feel God working in, so it's a good change. But it's also 100% something I didn't see coming, and that can cause some discomfort. I've got to re-find that perfect spot on the couch to sink into the cushions and get comfortable again. 

This change is showing me how narrow my vision can be. It's taking long term plans I had made for myself, and shattering them to create new ones. It's a beautiful process, really. But you know what I'm realizing? How much of our identity can get wrapped up in our plans. And really, how much of our identity can get wrapped up in things that aren't God. 

So I'm having to take a step back. It's my natural inclination to think everything through, to dream all the way through to fifteen years down the line, and even if it doesn't happen exactly the way I dreamt it to be, at least there's some false stability in that. 

Today, I honestly couldn't tell you what a month from now will look like. And that thought can get my heart racing. It can get my thoughts anxiously swirling around. But it also brings me to a deeper place of surrender, and puts verses like:

I cry out to God Most High, 

to God who will

fulfill His purpose

for me. 

Psalm 57:2

 to so much more meaning. The fact is, God does have purpose for my life. Whether I can imagine it, or not, that doesn't change His plans.

And so today, I find my rest in a simple, yet profound piece of my identity. 

 

I am His. My plans are His. My life is His. My identity is His.

And knowing that, my friends, is a thousand trillion times better than knowing what my life will look like one month from now.