Identity. That’s a
heavy word, right? Right now, your life as a senior is full of self-discovery.
And you can be guaranteed that your college life will be full of similar
questions. Who am I? What am I doing with my life? Why am I the way I am? How
does my life make a difference? When do I start my life?
I need you to
understand two things: you are loved and your identity is not based on any of
those questions.
You are a child of
God. You are a CHILD OF GOD. YOU are a child of God.
Take a minute to
think about what that MEANS. You come from the most powerful being that exists.
You are a part of Him. You are made in His image. There is nothing more
precious than you. Now here is the real revelation, between being a child of
God and being covered in Christ’s redeeming blood, your value is not based on what you do.
No matter how you
have lived your life to this point, your worth comes from the One who created
you. You are not an athlete. You are not a nerd. You are not emo, a hipster, an
overachiever, a failure, or an outcast. Do not carry around what you have
labeled yourself or what you have been labeled the rest of your life. There
isn’t enough time not to embrace who you really are.
We have been born into a messed up world.
Making sense of it helps us survive. We like labels because we want to make
sense of our lives. As you move forward with the rest of this year, be brave enough to allow your identity to
be determined by Christ. Be brave enough to come back from this experience and
be different. A retreat is designed to form an intense intentional community
that seeks God’s presence together. It is meant to separate you from everything
so you can focus and be changed. So don’t just be changed because of a
mountaintop experience that will fade as you adjust to real life again. The
experiential high of an intense retreat moment is just that, based on a moment.
Make the conscious decision to be different.
And if you don’t know
what that looks like, ask for help. God craves a relationship with you like you
crave fast food or music or video games. As imperfect as you may be, God wants
to be nearer to your heart more than anything else that exists. Trust that He loves you and wants to be with
you as you navigate the new and exciting parts of your life. Trust that He
knows how you feel about your life, not because He is creepily eavesdropping on
you, but instead because His Son knows. Jesus lived life. He faced issues of
identity, of worth, of temptation. He was challenged by the Pharisees, amused
by His disciples and loving towards His family.
While it is true that
high school graduation is the ending of something, and college is the beginning
of something, don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that by starting college
you are entering the best years of your life. That is false; each year of your
life is a gift. You will have different kinds of experiences in college than
when you start working, it’s true. Each stage of life is different, but none is
better or worse than another. So approach it as a fresh start, if you want, but
not as the only fresh start you get.
Do not let what you
did or who you hung out with follow you around your whole life, but especially
as you go into college. Don’t try too hard to re-invent yourself either. Just
accept that how you define yourself won’t make sense to the world. Have the courage
to be defined by your faith in a just and loving God. Allow your label to be “loving,
servant-hearted human being whose life reflects Christ’s mission”. Do not ever
be afraid to start over in the middle of your life or the middle of a day. It does work that way, it DOES. You can
always be redefined by the grace of God. Any minute, any hour, any day or any
year you can always be redeemed. You can always reclaim your identity as a
child of God. Always. There is nothing that you can do to take that option
away. NOTHING.
Go forth. Be brave.
Love as Christ did. Serve people who deserve it and those who don’t. Remember
that heaven is coming, and this life will fade more quickly than you can
imagine. God loves you, and so do I.
Love always,
A
P.S. Check out 1 John 3:1-3
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