Who do you think you are?

Who do you think you are?

How would you answer this question?

Me? Well, it depends.

If this question is asked with a confident attitude, I can become defensive; it can make me feel out of place, in the wrong, ashamed, guilty.

If it is asked with a genuine interest, it will make me pause for a second and make me reflect; it will make me wait and start considering all of the pieces that make me who I am.

Maybe I will be asked in a way that makes me doubt my identity, my purpose, and the truth about who God says I am.

I was thinking of this question: "who do you think you are?" as I meditated on 2 Corinthians 5:17 and Colossians 3: 9-10.

Now that I am enfolded in Christ, the promise is that I have become a new person entirely. All that is related to the old is gone, vanished.

Hmmm, What was related to the old? What vanished? Vanished how?

Who am I? Am I my work, and what I do? Or am I who I am, new, being renewed in the image of God?

As I meditated on these words from the verses, I let my heart commune with God, allowing the small and loving voice to become loud and clear. At that moment, I realized how through the years, I only saw these verses of more of a rule or duty, even responsibility.

Like when you receive a scholarship, you better behave and do not goof up. Now you got this, so you better watch out.

I have always seen this as what I am not supposed to do, rules and boundaries, and correct behaviors. It made me think in the light of who I am not supposed to be.

I've interpreted the old ways more like my bad pieces of life, like anger, selfishness, unforgiveness, sin, etc.

I looked at my identity being wrapped and trapped in my past, instead of the hope of my future.

I've seen these verses only from the light of the past.

But meditating on these, at that moment, I realized I never considered this newness, this renewing, from a perspective of love and hope.

A light switched on my world; it brought both energy and vision and ignited the rich colors with significant variations.

A light full of promises, bringing hope of the dawn, igniting the world anew with such brilliance and elegance.

It brought the ability to see myself, others, see God, love, nature, newness, and the stunning variations as a great gift from God to me and the world.

There was an outburst in my heart... the good sort... the type that carries more possibilities than I could be conscious of. A new life, like sea air rolling over floating waves, kissing with a coldness that brings ever more wakefulness and awareness of the moment I have arrived.

I loved the way it made the world shine so newly, like the hope of spring in the snow-bequeathed days of winter.

When your life has been built on shifting sands, seeking a new life upon the rock is wise.

I felt like dancing with the wind and had no care for where my feet would land.

Now, let me ask again: Who do you think you are?

Let me share how I answer that question.

I am not a generic brand of beauty but divinely designed, created in God's image, a God of love, mercy, joy, kindness, wholeness.

I am created to stand out in every way, so the world around me can see God's creativity, originality, and uniqueness in me.

I am divinely dressed with compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. But regardless of what else I put on, I wear love. It's my basic, all-purpose garment. I am never without it.

I am quick to forgive an offense. I forgive as quickly and thoroughly as my Father forgave me.

I am a heart filled with the sweet taste of joy, filled with hope knowing that God has more for me as I leave the predictability and the past behind.

I am free, I am chosen, I am healed, I am loved, I am prosperous, I am saved.

In this light, these verses became precisely what they promise,

a new life, a new identity.

A new life and new hope, rooted in the soil that nurtures, where I will only ever find love, acceptance, calm refreshing winds. Words of love, hope, and healing spoken over me. By Jesus Himself.

The old ways, thoughts, habits, motivations can be left in the past as I walk in the freedom toward the next steps in who I really am.

Who do you think you are?

How would you answer this question?

Me?

I pause for a second, and I reflect as I consider all of the pieces that make me who I am—my new identity in Christ.