“Your worse off than you think; and more loved than you’ve ever hoped.”
This past week Sam Chez was teaching for the Ocean City Beach Project on Identity in Christ. The main point of his two class sessions is summed up pretty well in the statement above. He used a lot of material from a curriculum called Sonship, developed by Jack Miller and World Harvest Mission (I think that’s where the quote above comes from).
Students are asking a lot of questions about their identity- and it’s no wonder; there are all sorts of messages in the world telling them who they are… media, professors, unhealthy relationships; the list goes on. This week challenged them to find their identity in the love of Christ. While out for ice cream last week with my discipleship group one student asked; “so, I hear this identity in Christ language; but what does that REALLY mean?” Good question. How do we really identify ourselves in Christ? We talked about where we find our worth– do we find it in God? Or in our successes? Our failures? Or are we living out of the grace of the Gospel that we’ve been given; allowing ourselves to be seen as the beloved Children of God? We’re sinful people; but we aren’t identified by our sin when we turn our lives over to Christ.
Sam made it clear that our identity in Christ is the foundation for what we are learning the rest of the summer. We had the macro picture the previous week– helping us see ourselves as part of God’s story of creation, fall, and redemption. This week was more focused on a micro level– our own redemption as children who have been adopted by God. Living out of our identity in Christ gives us so much freedom to participate in the story of God’s Kingdom. We are free to take risks, make mistakes, and love boldly because our worth is rooted in Christ.
Sam ended his class by reading the story (written by Jamie Tworkowski) that is behind a movement called “To Write Love on Her Arms.” If you have a minute, I highly recommend reading it: http://www.twloha.com/the_story.php. This organization exists to present hope and find help for those struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide.
Here’s a paragraph I copied & pasted from their story of taking in a young woman who was denied entry into rehab, so they took her in and cared for her: “ We often ask God to show up. We pray prayers of rescue. Perhaps God would ask us to be that rescue, to be His body, to move for things that matter. He is not invisible when we come alive. I might be simple but more and more, I believe God works in love, speaks in love, is revealed in our love. I have seen that this week and honestly, it has been simple: Take a broken girl, treat her like a famous princess, give her the best seats in the house. Buy her coffee and cigarettes for the coming down, books and bathroom things for the days ahead. Tell her something true when all she’s known are lies. Tell her God loves her. Tell her about forgiveness, the possibility of freedom, tell her she was made to dance in white dresses. All these things are true.”
It is our identity in Christ that allows us to freely & fully do what the paragraph below calls us to (sorry to spoil the ending):
We are only asked to love, to offer hope to the many hopeless. We don’t get to choose all the endings, but we are asked to play the rescuers. We won’t solve all mysteries and our hearts will certainly break in such a vulnerable life, but it is the best way. We were made to be lovers bold in broken places, pouring ourselves out again and again until we’re called home.”
The amazing thing about this story; as well as about our call to love– is that we cannot do any of this “rescuing” on our own AND we are not called to do it on our own. I am living in a house with 23 other people who are discovering what it means to love and support one another daily. We are all broken and sinful– worse off than we think we are– and yet we are in a place where we are called to love one another deeply. And the love we are experiencing is more than any of us hoped; and yet it’s just a glimpse of the love that Christ has for us.
Seriously– I’ve been in conversation heaven here this summer: students asking questions about social issues, urban issues, fair trade, simple living, food systems, politics… and wondering how we are to live faithfully in all of these areas of our life. We’ve talked about studying the Bible, evangelism, hospitality, spiritual disciplines… and we’re still talking, and will be for the rest of the summer. In fact, these are questions that we’ll all be asking for the rest of our lives. I just pray that the love and boldness that we are experiencing this summer will stay with students after the summer is over…
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