I am a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow,
A wave tossed in the ocean, a vapor in the wind.
Still you hear me when I'm calling,
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling,
And you've told me who I am.
I am yours.
A wave tossed in the ocean, a vapor in the wind.
Still you hear me when I'm calling,
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling,
And you've told me who I am.
I am yours.
Who am I, Casting Crowns
Dr. Murray opened the service last Sunday by asking the congregation, “Who do you think you are?”
My eyes lit up as the rest of his sermon declared us sheep of God and Jesus as our good shepherd. Is there anything better that we could be?
A prom queen, a quarterback, a business woman, an Aston Martin owner, a banker, a broker, a realtor, a parent, a girlfriend, a wife—which title inflates your pride? There is not one thing that is more amazing than belonging to God.
As I sat in the pew alone, listening to the sermon, my thoughts drifted back to Thursday night.
It was a normal night. I had dinner with friends. We enjoyed pleasant conversation, savoring the fellowship. Soon, it was time for the evening to come to an end. My friend pulled me aside and touched my life in that very moment.
He looked at me and said, “Jamie, you’re a beautiful, smart, funny Christian girl.”
Everything I could ever want to hear was in that sentence. He called me beautiful, validating my self-worth. He called me smart, validating my self-esteem. He called me funny, validating my need for acceptance. He called me a girl, validating my femininity.
But none of it mattered. My heart only settled on the utterance of one word:
Christian.
I, for the first time ever, plowed over all these adjectives and dove gleefully for the only one that mattered.
Christian.
Before that night, a peer had never personally named me a Christian. I’m a Christian! I don’t know why it meant so much to hear it on another’s lips—to be recognized by another as God’s child. Officially. It felt official.
It seems stupid, I know. I’ve been baptized; I was asked all the questions acknowledging being saved only by Christ. I’ve been attending church consistently. In Independent’s Call to Worship, they begin with saying, “Christian, what do you believe?”
But it was personal tonight. I felt like it was coming from God. Like a little, “I love you; you really are mine!”
So that morning, when asked by Dr. Murray, “Who do you think you are?” my heart sang out joyfully, assuredly, “I am His—I am His!”
For none of us lives to himself, and no man dies to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's (Romans 14:7,8).
