Steppin' out in faith...

You know that moment when a bunch of 'signs' enter your life to declare one larger message?

First they trickle in like hesitant streams... but as they all flow together, they become a roaring river of truth washing over your heart.

Well, lately this theme has been echoing throughout my days:

'where is my identity found?'

+ First it was through this sermon Ben and I heard a few months ago.  (The hunger we all have to find our identity ~ often seeking to define ourselves by our 'social status' 'careers' or 'accomplishments' etc.  We short-change ourselves by trying to worship these 'created' things instead of the Creator).

+ Then, a ladies group I'm attending has been challenging my outlook in fresh ways week after week.  Recently, the notion of taking 'criticism' as a help instead of as harm rocked my mind.  Who likes being criticized?!  We instantly want to throw our fists up and retort "oh yeeeeah, well you're a no-good-stinking-something-or-other!!".  But that shows how easily our pride gets ruffled - how eager we are to appease it, stroke it, assure it that everyone else has got it wrong.

If someone (hopefully a friend) seeks to offer constructive criticism, can I embrace it as offered truth to help me grow by?  I really want to.

+ Also, Ben and I are reading this book , and this quote just knocks my socks off:
“The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed…As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal there will be those who will delight to offer affront to your idol. How then can you hope to have inward peace? The heart’s fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest. Continue this fight through the years and the burden will become intolerable…Such a burden as this is not necessary to bear. Jesus calls us to His rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort…The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather, he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God’s estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is, in the sight of god, more important than angels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything. That is his motto.”

A.W. Tozer.

As these rivers run together, my heart is being reminded that to step out on a firm foundation in this life - is to step out in faith.

If my identity is found in this unchanging love of God... it cannot be shaken.

 Take my creativity, my health, my home, my delights, my 'riches'... none of these define me as deeply as being united in Christ.

There, I said it,

Now, to keep trying to live it.

Mel ;o)

*P.S: This post may seem a bit heavier than my usual creative banter... but it's what/where my heart is... and that's where the posts come from.  Thanks for hearing it, friends!