Who do You say I am?

We are a culture of labels, diagnoses and identity theft. We are battered women, severely mentally ill, sex offenders, Democrats, Republicans, tree huggers, Jesus freaks, rich, poor, marginalized, lost...

I have found myself heartsick these past few weeks as I work with the homeless, dying and mentally ill. I participate in critically thinking out symptom management and behavior modification. As I venture out into the field and engage potential patients during intakes, I inquire with many questions and the answers I get are:

I am an addict
I am depressed
I am not wanted by my family
I am a felon
I am dying

There are days where during my questions I find myself looking through the eyes of Jesus into the heart, soul, and spirit of each person. Their identity has been stolen and replaced with a man made identity driven by our system and our culture. The spirit I feel and see over these precious people is one I ironically saw over and over in the developing country of Mozambique. The orphaned spirit...abandoned, hopeless, shamed. People so lost that the only identity they can find is through a diagnosis in our mental health system. They hold tight to their diagnosis as it brings them hope and the possibility of much needed benefits...medication, food, housing, counseling, and at times income.

What we are witnessing is an identity crisis from a broken or non-existent relationship with our Heavenly Father, the one true source of life...our identity.

A Father that lavishes His love on us to the point of death. A Father that calls us sons and daughters. A Father that sees us holy, blameless, worthy.

"Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."  Hebrew 12:2 (ESV)

We are His joy!

"The love of Christ knows no boundaries, it recognizes no labels."

He promises to meet us where we are; therefore, we are to meet others where they are. He calls us love; therefore, we are called to love. The greatest becomes the least and the least becomes the greatest. He will not forsake us in our weakness, He will be our strength.

We are not defined or limited by others...we are freed by His love for us.