Who I Am - Identity

Who I Am - Identity.

What does it mean to be alive, to be human, a person, yourself?  That depends on two things, in my opinion - your worldview, and your identity.  When combined with personality, background, belief, and morals, they create a unique individual who can be neither replicated nor put into a stereotypical box of normalcy.
  When you get to know someone, it never, ever happens in a day, or a month, and rarely does it take any less than at least a year to get a general idea about who someone really is, in my opinion.  People are somewhat like complicated, ancient books - we can be read, over time, by struggling through the difficult parts to understand, and sometimes taking the time to slowly unstick pages that are glued together, to wait a long time on occasion for some things to make sense, for the real story of a person's life to unravel.  Maybe the hardest part about getting to genuinely know someone for who they are is the devotion, dedication and patience it takes to get them to open up to you, to face their fears and insecurities, and to trust you.
  Trust.  Trust is something that takes a small eternity to build, yet can be torn down in a brief moment of carelessness.  Trust is so fragile, so delicate, so precious.  It's so pricy that it cannot be measured by the measures that mere men use... trust, in its perfected form, is deserving of the awe of humanity.  To build up someone's trust in you is to tear down their protective walls, the fortress that they've slowly and steadily built around themselves and all that is meaningful to their hearts, all that touches their timeless, ageless, endless Souls.  Ahh, trust... what hard work we go to to earn it; but in reality, could anyone ever deserve it?  We all mess up sometimes, we all fail, we all slip up and miss the mark that we strive for at times - it's a hard, cold reality of life.
  Life - this little game we play with time, this short thing that we take so much for granted - we have little enough of it.  We're here for a mere moment, a brief time.  We never have enough time to do all that we want, to have all that we wish for, to strive for all that we would be in a perfect world.  Or, maybe that's not true, maybe I should scratch that - for crushing the idea that you're not to attempt to better yourself is not my agenda.  Yes - we are supposed to try, to strive, to wish, to attempt - but we're also supposed to accept that our power isn't enough.  We're not big enough.  All that we could ever do will never be enough.  We're just not strong enough, because we're not "all that".  I'm not, you're not, no one is, really.... no one who's only human, that is.  There was One, who was all human, but not ONLY human, who was strong enough, big enough, powerful enough - yes, He really was "all that".  In fact, He even saved my life once.  That's a really good story, you know...
  You see, I was Eve in the garden, the woman who sinned and gave all that was good and perfect and true for all that was ugly and evil and broken.  I was Lot's wife, who didn't trust her husband or God, and turned back to mourn her home.  I was Leah, who purposely made fun of her barren sister.  I was Moses' sister, who betrayed her brother.  I was king David's wife, who didn't understand why her husband worshiped the God of Israel in the way that he did.  I was Potiphar's wife, who lusted after Joseph, her husband's slave, and then lied and sent Joseph, the innocent one, to prison.  I was Gomer, Hosea's adulteress wife, who her husband bought back for himself after she left him.  I was the prostitute, who Jesus saved by daring the men condemning her to throw the first stone if he was sinless.  I was Sapphira, who let her husband keep back part of the money set aside for God.
  I was a dirty, ugly, pitiful, writhing sinner. Wretched, contorted, skewed, greasy, unclean, blinded, unpleasant.  A sinner.
  But, no longer!  I am triumphantly redeemed,  saved from my worst enemy, which is myself, salvaged, washed, stainless, purified, and called to be Holy, even as God Himself is Holy.  He is the worthy lamb that was slain for the sin of man... the true living sacrifice.
  While I was still a sinner, Jesus, the man who saved me, chose me - made the decision that I was someone worth the weight of death, of sin, worth the burden of the wrath of God.  He struggled through 40 days without food or water, He washed the feet of His followers that were caked in mud and the foulness of uncouth dirt streets; He, a King among all the kings, carried willingly two beams in the shape of a cross that were bound together by nails similar to the ones what were driven through the sinews and tendons of His wrists and His feet, ferociously gouged into His roughened, yet still tender, flesh.  He was stabbed in the side by a sword, drained of His last drop of lifeblood, for me - yet, not a bone in His body was broken, for He was punctured, but still complete.  He saved me by dying my death - He switched places with me.
  So, who am I?  I am salvaged, saved, redeemed by One who loved me so much, He gave His life up and took on the weight of all my sin.  That's where my identity is.
  My worldview is that He didn't just do this for me - He did it for you, too, and for every single person who has ever walked the face of this earth.
  He Loves You.

You are a treasure - a gift - a piece if gorgeous art - a masterpiece - crafted my immaculate workmanship - individual - one of a kind - made to worship - beautiful - loved incredibly much by God Himself - you are someone worth dying for.