A brief glance through 140 character twitter bios quickly results in a long list of titles we use to identify ourselves. I won’t call anyone out by making a list, but it makes me wonder where we root our identity as individuals. I don’t think artists are the only ones who have a tendency to draw their identity from what they create…from their work…from what they do. In fact I would argue that most of those titles in social media bios describe what we do more than who we are. I can’t help but wonder if it’s because we root our identities in what we do.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m guilty of this. I’ve spent my entire life unknowingly (or at least refusing to admit it) rooting my identity in what I do…in the results I produce. When I decided that God was calling me to quit my job at my church and move to Nashville a big piece of that puzzle was the conviction to go somewhere for who I was going to be there rather than what I was going to do there. I think it was God’s way of retraining me on where I root my identity. And He’s still teaching me. There are days when I’m 100% content and my identity is firmly rooted in the fact that I am a loved and redeemed child of God but there are also days when the fact that I don’t have a title or a really defined “what” in my life right now drives me absolutely crazy. And it drives me crazy because in those moments I feel like if I don’t have a “what” I don’t have an identity.

Now, maybe I’m over-analyzing a 140 character bio. But, maybe not. Either way I would encourage us all to remember that God loves us first and foremost for who we are, not what we do. In His eyes, what we do should flow out of who we are.

Lord, help us to root our identity in the fact that we are created, not in what we create.