Category Archives: Identity

A time to run!

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“You’ve got to face your fears! You have got to face your demons. If you don’t they will haunt you all your life!”

We have all heard this kind of advice at some point in our lives whether that be personally, in a famous autobiography or perhaps on a cool fighting movie or something! We can’t spend our lives running away from things, but sometimes there is a time or a season to run away…

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4500 miles across the pond!
As you know in our case God opened up the way for us to literally move 4500 miles away from a very difficult time in our lives in London (see previous posts). For 9 months after crashing and burning out,  I held out as hard as I could to stay in London, to keep my family in our home and in our world! I was clinging to what I thought was best and most precious to me, but what we really needed was to somehow get away… After we arrived in Washington I came across this verse from the story of Mary and Joseph and noted it in my journal –

“An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” (Matthew 2:13)

Joseph and his family were diverted away from their home town in Bethlehem as part of God’s protection and rescue plan. And according to commentaries it seems that they may have stayed in Egypt for about 7 years rather than a few months before returning home.

God told Joseph and his family to run away!
What I found really interesting about this was that in this situation God does not tell Joseph to stand strong against an enemy attack. He doesn’t tell Joseph to fight the potential danger that was soon to come to his family. God tells him to flee. To run away and get the heck out of there!

Why is this taking so long God, Arrrr!??
God often brings us out from a dangerous or chaotic place in order to get our attention from all the noise and begin a process of healing. That process for me was and continues to be a long process!

At times over the last year I have gotten frustrated expecting that surely by now God would have me and my family all fixed, delivered and sorted from every problem in life! But it hasn’t been that way. “What’s going on God?! Why is life still so hard? Come on it’s been like 2 years!”

David was on the run from Saul for 8 years!!!
We read in 1 Samuel 21:10-15 that David ran away from Saul in fear of his life and went into a season of hiding! He was a fugitive on the run. What I didn’t realize was that David was most probably in this season for 4-8 years according to different scholars! I just always thought of it as maybe a few months reading the quick snapshots of the story in 1 Samuel. But no, David entered a season of running, of hiding, and of hardship for up to 8 years.

How can this happen to God’s chosen King?
Hold on a minute! How can this be? How can a righteous person like David with an incredible calling on his life be in such a situation? I cant imagine prince William (the next in line to the British throne) being on the run from danger and living away from home because of someone wanting to kill him. Why did God allow David to be in such a terrible situation? It just seems so wrong and unfitting for a King to be! He should be protected. He should be honored as a king, not left to be a fugitive on the run from a killer!

We are also God’s chosen Kings and Queens to be!
As born again believers in Jesus we are our now part of God’s royal family!

“And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory…” (Romans 8:17 NLT)

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We are joint heirs with Jesus who is the King reigning on the throne of heaven. Just as Prince William (and Harry) is heir of the throne by way of birth and ‘sonship’, so we as believers in Christ are born again into God’s royal family and are heirs of heaven’s throne. By grace we will inherit and share in Jesus’ royal status as King. This is amazing!

“I’m gona live like a child of the King”
Every now and then I come across the motto, ‘I’m gona live like a royal child of the King’. What people usually mean when they say this is that they are claiming their God given rights to live a life of victory, freedom and blessing in every aspect of life. And while this is true of who we are in Christ, it is not the whole truth this side of eternity. You wanna live like a child of the King? Are you sure? Do You want to live like King David who ran for 8 years from Saul? What about our ultimate King – Jesus Christ? He suffered more than anyone! He was driven out from his home town. He was crucified on a cross!

God’s royal heirs must share in Christ’s sufferings…
Surely God won’t allow his royal children to suffer and find themselves on the run from danger… will he?? Here is the next bit of our wonderful Romans 8:17 verse speaking of our royal heirship with Christ –

“… But if we are to share his glory, we must also share in his suffering.” (Romans 8:17 NLT)

I liked the first bit of this verse about us sharing in Christ’s royal glory but this bit… well let’s say I didn’t expect to read this. This verse is not saying that suffering somehow earns or merits us salvation! But it means that a mark of being a follower of Christ is that we will suffer and experience hardship. I don’t believe this ‘suffering’ is relegated to just persecution for the faith as sometimes people may say. No, this verse is is talking about all Christians. It’s part of the Christian life this side of eternity!

Take comfort that you are Christ’s!
Suffering will come to us and God will purposefully allow it at different times and in different seasons of our lives. Why? Well that’s another blog! But for now here is the point – when you are suffering, when you are on the run from a certain situation in your life, when hardship goes on for a very long time – you can take some refuge in knowing that this is biblical! You are in good company with all the brothers and sisters in Christ across the world!

“Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.” (1 Peter 4:12, 13 NLT)

If anything our sufferings are perhaps meant to encourage us that we are truly God’s royal children sharing in Christ’s sufferings… I know for me that this theme has helped me find purpose and meaning in the midst of long term suffering and in finding an answer to the question of why Is this happening! I have felt at times a strange sense of belonging to God because of the suffering. A sense or confirmation of being one of God’s chosen and adopted children… a royal heir of Christ!

Running the treadmill all alone

Identity, , , , , , , , , ,

It was the summer of 2012 and I was now off work for the whole summer in an attempt to recover from my chronic fatigue. During that summer period Sunday mornings were very strange for me as I did not attend or lead the church. On a typical Sunday morning during that summer you would find me at the gym working out while my church was about 100 meters away from me in the same shopping mall meeting in the Movie theatre! I felt like I was out in the wilderness laying low.

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Who was I now?
Who exactly was I now, running on that treadmill all alone? As the months moved on that question popped up as the ‘stripping down’ of my life increased. I went from having a good and high profile job to having no job and being unemployed for a long time. I went from having a decent salary to having nothing (including my family living in a homeless shelter later on). I went from having achieved a lot to suddenly being unable to achieve anything! I went from having lots of recognition to running the treadmill all alone in what felt like no-mans land. That was a very lonely time me.

In the ‘desert’ we find our true selves!
Despite this being a horrible time for me, looking back I can see some gems appearing. I discovered that God uses times like these to help us know who we truly are in Him. What I mean is this – when all your gifts, abilities, performance, achievements, recognition and approval from others is gone… who are you? How much are you worth when there is nothing you can do?

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God loved us before we had achieved or done anything!
I am so thankful for the truth of the gospel. It tells me something incredible!

“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners”. (Romans 5:8 NLT)

This verse is one of my favourite verses in the whole bible! It tells me that when I was at my worst, a sinner, having not achieved any righteousness of my own, God still loved me! You can’t get worse than being a ‘sinner’ and yet God loved us while we were like that. We were precious and valuable to Him before we had earned or achieved anything. He loves us unconditionally and takes us in just as we are and then later cleans us up. I often think of my love for my children. I loved them right from day 1 before they were able to do anything!

My identity is in Christ!
Our God given gifts and callings are wonderful things, but they are not the primary way we find our self worth and identity! The ultimate answer to the question, ‘who are you now?’ is this – my identity and worth is in Jesus Christ. It’s in everything he is for me and has achieved for me. Whether I am a pastor or not, an achiever of great things or not, a money earner or not, my identity and worth is in Jesus Christ. And yes, even if I have failed and sinned throughout the day – I am still a righteous saint in Christ!

Who are you? What’s your identity in?
Maybe your worth and value is in your achievements at work and you are pretty driven! Or maybe you are an incredible and talented athlete but the thought of no longer having that makes you feel very empty and scared. Maybe you thrive from the admiration of the opposite sex because, well lets face it, you are pretty darn good looking! Maybe your hard earned cash and bank balance gives you a sense of achievement, entitlement and worth. Maybe you have a very high position in your work and love the feeling of that, but it’s a little scary when someone else is being praised or promoted. Maybe you were a great mother to your children but now they have all left home, and you feel lost with who you are and what your value is in. Maybe you are just a wonderful, nice and happy person to be around. People really love hanging out with you, but its getting exhausting keeping up that smile!

Don’t be afraid of losing things (or your life!)

Jesus said, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:24 ESV)

Don’t be afraid of losing your life. Its scary at first, I know! But I have learnt that the stripping away of things in my life is helping me find my life again… but this time in Jesus. I lost the job I loved, lived for and dreamed of. I lost my health and ability to achieve things (sometimes all I could do in a day was… well, not a lot!). I became pretty low and self centered at times. But, I am now beginning to find that my real true life is rooted in God’s unconditional love for me. My value and worth is in Jesus Christ and not in what I have or how well I have done that day.

So, if you are going through a desert time in your life right now, or feel the whole world is being taken away from you, God might just be using this time to help you rediscover your life, worth and identity in Him.