I Am...

If the words "I am" were placed before you and you were being asked to complete the sentence, what would you add?  Would you identify yourself with your weight?  I am fat, skinny, average...  Would you self-identify with your age?  I am old, young, middle age...  Would you fill in the blank with what others say about you - and, if so, from which others?  For instance, Tim Tebow was named a Heisman Trophy winner but was also told by "analysts" that he couldn't throw - from which should he accept his identity?

Some days you feel like a winner, on others you feel like a total loser - which is your identifier?  You've received the "Employee of The Month Award" in the past but lately you haven't even received a pat on the back.  Which employee would you say your are - the best or just one of the rest?  You have a picture of yourself as a beautiful young bride and one as a grey, wrinkled, gravity-challenged great-grandmother?  With which do you identify?  You received metals for weight-lifting, now your broad shoulders have been replace with rotund middle and the most weight you lift is when you get out of a chair.  Which you do you allow to define you?

The problem with most self-identifier, whether we accept them from others or we come up with them ourselves, is that they are opinions based on a reflection in a moment in time.  The speak of aspects of self that are changing and will continue to change.  Young become old and continues to age.  Weight goes up and comes down and goes up or down again.  You may out perform, over achieve or flop entirely depending on circumstances beyond your control or on how well you are feeling at a particular moment in time.  While God "does not change like the shifting shadows" (Js 1:17), we do.

Are age, weight, looks, earning capacity, mental acuity, physical stamina, etc., will all change.  The opinions of other about us will constantly change depending on their perception of what or how we are doing at a particular time in our lives.  How you feel about yourself can go up and down like a yo-yo.  You are a changing entity in a changing environment.  Your identity - the way you would complete the statement, "I am...," necessarily changes too - except when...

...except when you accept the unchanging identity that come from the unchanging God, who "...chose us in him before the creation of the world [and]...In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will" (Eph 1:4-5).  The one identifier that never changes is "I am loved by God!"  This reflection is timeless and changeless.  When someone asks you what you know for sure, you can say, "I am loved by God!"  When you are asked to identify your self, regardless of time or circumstance, you can say "I am loved by God!"  Jus' Say'n.