Hi friends, 2018 is moving fast! Soon we’ll land in summer, and spring will be the overlooked middle child in the seasons family. The change from winter to summer is muddled in Illinois. And that brings me to change, the thing my distracted brain was supposed to focus on! Don’t miss Tracy’s thoughts on going through change here. Kim shares next week. Check in Tuesdays or sign up to receive every post so you don’t miss a thang…
Body and Mind Games
I’m about that age. The math gets easy next year when my birth year and the current year end in nines. Night sweats—any-time-of-day sweats, actually—have come and gone. No one would ever guess, they say. The “metallic roots” were obvious (to me). When I stripped the boxed brown out and tinted the bleached blonde underneath to “natural grey,” I didn’t recognize myself in the mirror. I got strange looks from my friends, too. I still lift heavy things in the gym. I tried Brazilian Jiu Jitsu this year, and I was reminded my brain writes checks the body won’t cash. Some changes wrack the body and mind. I’m adjusting (not so willingly).
Who Am I?
As hard as physical changes are, some changes ambush me differently. When my identity or my heart is in the change’s crosshairs, it’s a whole other kind of hard. My life was recently upended kind of like that.
I officially donned the teacher-mom hat in 2005; but really, I’ve been a teacher-mom from the beginning. Once upon a time, it was me and two active little boys in a very organized school room. The older was a learning “sponge” and a lover of books, including the dictionary. The younger was a carpe diem kind of kid, an experiential learner who kept me on my toes. The three of us pursued learning together every weekday.
I poured energy and time into lesson plans, courses, and grading. Life had a rhythm: summer’s dreams crescendoed to the fall kick-off; winter’s cabin fever gave way to spring’s finish line. The promise of exciting summer dreams fueled the late nights before the fall kick-off. Every year.
After nearly 2,100 school days, I’ve taken off the teacher-mom hat. Now that’s a big change!
My little boys grew into young men. Memories of our favorite read-alouds make me cry. (Thanks, Love You Forever and Giving Tree. *sigh*)
Lather, Rinse, Repeat
If you do a thing often enough, the repetition has an effect. As a home schooling mom, I taught. I taught often enough that I believed I was a teacher.
I teach, so I must be a teacher.
Bear with me. I think we can generalize. Try filling in the blank. I _____, so I must be a ______. The problem is, we mistakenly assume an identity in connection with whatever fills the first blank, good or bad. What happens when something changes?
Some changes are wonderful and wanted:
At one time I lied, so I was a liar.
The change was welcome:
I told the truth, so I became a truth-teller.
It gets complicated when the change is surprising, confusing, or incomplete.
I was a teacher, but now—.
Self-examination can be helpful during a big change. If I get it right, it encourages me to put words on the page and keeps me from wasting time hoping for a big break and a recording contract. It may put my unique, God-given strengths and my weaknesses to work. But I’m not the sum of what I do. I need a healthy source of identity; we all do. We need a “sane, stable, and spiritual” identity. A rational, balanced, solid, spiritual identity comes from one source, frankly: God.
It’s in relationship to God, the One who never changes, that we find an unshakable identity.
Who Are You?
When we’re at a loss for words, when we’ve forgotten who we really are, we can run to the source of truth for a solid description of our identity. Can I share some thoughts, “Word weapons” if you will, for when amnesia sets in?
So God created humankind in his own image; in the image of God he created him: male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 CJB
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, John 1:12 ESV
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:1-2 ESV
Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV
But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you— 1 Peter 2:9 MSG
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:1-3 CSB
I love checking myself in the scripture “mirror” rather than the one on my bathroom wall because that image looks like my Jesus. That image represents the welcome change and the help I need in the middle of change. That image isn’t tied to a day of the week, an age, or the people around me.
The verses up there are a smidge of the truth between the covers of a Bible. When I’m going through change, I’m desperate for truths like these. My hope is that we’ll choose to arm ourselves for the mental and emotional battle before we’re in the middle of it.
Let’s ask, “Who am I?” and “Whose am I?” Then answer solidly and sanely from the Source of our identity.
Thanks for reading along. Have you taken time to seek truth from the scripture “mirror” lately? Tell me about your experience. I’m curious!
