Whose are You?

I always laugh when I see the phrase “I don’t feel like adulting today” or something similar. I have too many days like that.  Life has become over-complicated and I long for the days of being 5-years-old, sitting in my backyard making mud pies, while creating various imaginative scenarios.  The days of mud pie crafting are long gone, I often wish I could have a day where I could go back to the basics, without having to stress over caring for the little ones and all of the responsibilities of being a wife and mother.  I love my family, but I tend to overcomplicate things and stress over details that don’t really matter.

I do this in my spiritual life as well.  I have become enthralled with the life of St. Paul and how God wrecked him, to bring him back to the basics.  Draw him back to what really matters, back to God.  Paul was the elite of the elite in the religious world, knowing all there was to know about Jewish history and heritage, ensuring all others knew as well. He was so passionate about the laws of the Jewish faith, that violently persecuting those who spoke against those laws, or so he thought, became his mission.  Until, on a trip to round up more people who were a part of The Way (believers in Christ), God struck him blind and for the next few days.  God began stripping him of everything he had ever known and so fiercely believed in.  God broke him.  For three days, all Saul could do was to go back to the beginning, and cling to the only thing that remained, his Creator, God.

My oldest daughter shared with me about a friend that was hopeless.  She wanted to bring her a Bible and share scripture with her to help her find her hope there.  The friend’s struggles were far beyond any 12-year-old should have to bear, but my daughter wanted her to know the basics.  She wanted to let her know that she is loved and was created by a God who deeply cares for her.  She needed a basic foundation of God’s love for her.

Like Paul and that sweet 12-year-old girl, how often do I forget the basics, my spiritual foundation, whose I am?  Have I ever fully wrapped my brain around it?  I am a daughter of the King of the World (2 Corinthians 6:18), created in his image (Genesis 1:27), fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).  If I know these things in my head, have they gotten to my heart so that they reshape my thinking and my actions?  Do I live for others to see, whose I am?

The enemy loves to tell us who we are.  He can take over our thinking so quickly, making us believe we are not enough.  Not skinny enough, not happy enough, not holy enough…not enough.  My Heavenly Father only wants me to draw into Him so the enemy can stop telling me who I am NOT and God can tell me who I AM.

After all, he is the great I AM so He should know better than anyone.

Let’s all go back to the basics of remembering whose we are.  When life gets overwhelming, I have to come back to my foundation, God’s love for me.  Maybe it will make adulting a little bit easier.