Who am I?

Society puts so much focus on image and identity.
From the time we start school we're asked,

 "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

It doesn't change after we grow, as in conversation it is often one of the first questions to be shared.

"Where do you work?"  or...

"What do you do?"

By these answers we get a sense of who a person is, when in truth, what we do isn't at all who we are.

I've thought a lot about this the past year.  My husband and I have both had our "identities" pulled out from under us.  For both of us, we'd invested our entire adult lives in a focused area.  For me it was my career.  For my husband, his hobby -for lack of a better description, but I'd say more it was his passion.

He learned yesterday morning that after 30 years of devotion to the fire service his time as Chief would be ending.  Politics don't play well with joy so I won't include all the nasty details.  Short and sweet, he was pretty much booted out with no just cause from a volunteer position.

Its hard to wrap my head around why this happened or what my husband will do not being a firefighter but I know that through every trial there are lessons to be learned and good to come.  God has a plan in this, I have no doubt.

Since the news, God's already revealed a pretty giant lesson, or maybe a gentle reminder of what I already knew to be true.

Our identities shouldn't come from this world.
What we do is not who we are but rather He who dwells in us is what defines us.

When someone looks at me (or my husband), I want them to see God first.  If we have any title in this life, I want it to be that we are His.  I am a child of God.  And that's enough!

As my husband put it this morning, we're ready for the next chapter God has in store!