Identity

I'm all (or mostly) packed up and ready for tomorrow's early trip to Haiti.  I have a long checklist of things to bring with me including some very important documents.  To travel internationally you have to have some kind of identification.  In traveling to Haiti I carry my U.S. Passport as well as other forms of identification.  Without these papers I would have a much harder time of travel and certainly wouldn't make it very far.

I've been thinking a lot about identity over the past few weeks.  Who exactly am I?  I have this tendency to find my identity in the circumstances and people that are in my life.  I am a teacher, a friend, a sister, a daughter, an auntie... But these titles don't really define me.  Lately I've been feeling more defined by my failures.  Walking around with the identity of "failure" isn't exactly a God-honoring place to be.  So I ask, who am I?  What is the one and ultimate identity that completely explains and defines who I am?  I think the only answer that is truly complete, that can bring ultimate satisfaction and purpose is that I am a child of God, a sinner saved by grace, an heir with Christ, and a member of His body.  In this identity I find such amazing freedom and hope and love and grace.  

So tomorrow morning when the officers at customs ask me for my identification, I will happily hand them my passport and other papers, but in my heart and mind, I'll be holding onto the Lord who loves me and who gives me my ultimate identity through His sacrifice.