I have had more jobs than the average person. Honestly, I’ve had more jobs than 10 average people put together, and that’s a modest guesstimation. Needless to say, all of those jobs started with an application process. I’ve filled out my contact info, identification numbers, and employment history so many times that I have my driver license number memorized! I guess I was able to get to the interview stage because of my impeccable writing skills (not). No employer in their right mind would consider hiring someone whose had as many jobs as I have, but praise God for favor!
“So tell me a little bit about yourself.” For me, this was the dreaded start of every interview. I am a detail person, so I require a more specific directive to put my best foot forward. As many times as I was asked, it was hard to answer every time. That is, until I knew who I was. How can you rightly tell about someone you don’t know?
I would start with the things I could identify with. I’ve known for sure that I’m an artist. I’ve had a consistent passion for art from the time I was a young child. For Christmas I got art sets of every kind and as an adult I’ve given artworks as presents. I know I’m an artist. I also know I enjoy the beach and the great outdoors. Anytime there is sun shining, my face finds it to bask in, even if only for a few minutes. I’ve known a few things about myself and was confident I could accomplish whatever I set out to do, but not WHO I was.
I’ve had different names and nicknames, so with one set of people I was Katelan, with another, Keke, and yet with others I was Krazy Kate. Katelan is my given name but I didn’t really know who I was so I created personas to the nicknames and filled those identities. Most people do this, they just don’t have an education in Psychology and acknowledge that this is what they are doing. Let’s call this ability of self awareness a gift and see the positive in it, but know that it can become something quite overwhelming.
In the first few months of 2015 when I rededicated my life to the Lord, my pastor preached a series on identity. Praise God it was just what I needed. I had been faithfully seeking God in prayer, reading the Word, and worship. I didn’t have the desires I once had to pursue the lusts of the flesh, but I was challenged with accepting this identity of being a new creation. I still vividly remembered the actions of my past and struggled rejecting some of the mindsets that had been engrained after so many years of living the world’s way. I was identifying with the only person I knew, Krazy Kate. A party girl with a bad attitude who said whatever she wanted, did whatever she wanted, and was always right. A girl who didn’t take junk from anyone and wasn’t afraid to give you a piece of her mind.
How could I change this view of myself to seeing the new creation that God had transformed me to be? I had to see that I am a child of God. I had to see who he created me to be. In ordered to do that, I had to see who he is because we are created to be like Jesus.
“Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.”
1 John 2:6
The best place to find out the kind of person Jesus was is in the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These first hand accounts of Jesus’ life through the eyes and ears of the disciples shows us just how Jesus lived as a man on the earth.
“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.”
2 Peter 1:3
That’s where I began meditating. I kept in my thoughts that the Word of God is a mind renewal (Rom. 12:2). I read and remembered the promises given to us as children of God. Two scriptures that really cultivated this new identity of Katelan, the child of God were: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
2 Corinthians 5:17
“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
Philippians 4:8
All the ways of my old life didn’t glorify God.They weren’t lovely or honorable. They weren’t right and pure and true, so I thought on God and who he is instead. Gradually I was able to think about the old nature and be grateful for what God delivered me from, but I had to get my mind right first. I had to know who I am. Knowing who he is showed me who I am. The word shows both who you are and who God is. The next post will outline just those qualities and give a clear outline of the identity in Christ that the father creates for us to accept!
The W.O.R.D. 