{my graphics are free goodies for you}
I step into a Junior High lunch room that smells like old fries and sticky plastic trays. I scan the scene—the popular kids at one table, bookworms at another, the theater crowd and the athletes and the rebels. Who will look up and invite me over?
Tell me who I am.
My friends and I have crushes and dates and boyfriends. We fix our hair a hundred different ways. Crowd into dressing rooms to try a thousand different outfits. Loop silver and gold through our ears. The doorbell rings and he is holding roses.
Tell me who I am.
I am typing into a small screen and pressing “publish.” Sending my heart in black and white into the internet. There will be comments and likes, criticisms and compliments. I watch the cursor blink.
Tell me who I am.
Isn’t this the whisper of our hearts as women? The friends, the men, the crowd. They will tell us if we are okay. If we are worthy. If we are enough. Isn’t that their job?
But then I bump into this verse, “But Jesus would not entrust Himself to them, for He knew all people” (John 2:24). All people. The popular kids and the bookworms, the theater crowd and the athletes and the rebels. This verse has been there all along and it’s been a head-scratcher for me. He didn’t entrust Himself to them?
Then suddenly it occurs to me this might the answer: Jesus is the only human to walk this spinning planet and not say Tell me who I am. He didn’t look to others to definite His identity, to determine His worth. “Instead He entrusted himself to Him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23). “Judge” has a reputation of being a harsh word but I don’t think that’s the meaning here. I think it’s saying that God alone knows the truest-truth and that’s why His opinion is the only one that really matters.
Of course we are going to care what others think. We’re going to desire acceptance and want to fit in. This is the way we’re created to connect. The only folks who don’t are sociopaths. So no guilt about this, no shame or hardening our hearts. Instead we can simply say, “But God gets the final word.”
Tell me who I am.
And God says we are beloved and chosen, cherished and gifted, wanted and a divinely-shaped wonder.
When someone says, “You’ll never amount to anything,” He says, “You can do all things because I strengthen you” (Php. 4:13).
When someone tells us, “You don’t look the right way,” He whispers, “You are fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:14).
When someone implies, “You aren’t wanted,” He declares, “I have called you by name, you are mine” (Is. 43:1).
O, God, You are the One who gives us our identity. You are the One who sets us free from condemnation and comparison, hustling to be liked and trying to be perfect. You are the One right there with us every time we feel tempted to listen to the lies. May Your love always be louder than any other voice.
Tell us who we are.
XOXO
Holley Gerth
P.S. Today, I have an invitation for you! Will you join me in empowering girls in poverty so that they can grow up to be fiercehearted women? My 40th birthday is November 14th… and the gift I want most is for our community here to sponsor 40 girls through Compassion International, reminding each one that they are beloved and chosen, cherished and gifted.
I’ve traveled with Compassion and whole-heartedly believe in the good work they’re doing. Would you consider sponsoring a girl through Compassion? If you sponsor through this link, Compassion will send you a copy of my new book, Fiercehearted, as a thank-you.
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Right now, we’re doing a special link-up series to celebrate Fiercehearted: Live Fully, Love Bravely. You’re a fiercehearted woman so I’m asking you to pour out a little love and courage with your words every Wednesday {the link-up goes live at 5:30am CST}. Simply write an encouraging blog post, especially if it’s about living fully and loving bravely, and then share it here. Don’t have a blog? You can still write an encouraging comment. If you’re reading this by email, go to holleygerth.com to see all the fun and join in too.
When you link up your post, take a moment to leave an encouraging comment on the one that’s linked up just before yours. Thanks, friends!
I’m having Coffee For Your Heart with my friend Holley Gerth!
{click to tweet that you’re joining me here today}
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