“What’s your name?”
“Who are you?”
“What do you do?”
These are probably three of the most asked questions in our culture and our generation.
They’re the go-to questions when you’re getting to know somebody. The sad part is, often our answers get mixed up with the questions being asked. We answer the “who are you?” question with the “what do you do?” answer.
To be honest, this has been a CRAAAAZY year for me. I would say some good and some bad – but because of where I’m at now, and God's continual faithfulness, I can now say it was ALL good because He uses EVERYTHING for our good. (Romans 8:28)
This year came with a lot of changes and a lot of letting go of what I knew, and what had been my “world” for the last few years. I found myself asking God the question, "what do I do?” A lot. Not just in small situations, but in big picture too.
Jesus what do you want me to do with my life? Now that I’m not doing that, what do you want me to DO now? Asking again and again…and again. Finally, one night I heard Jesus say so clearly to me, “Laney, I’m not concerned about what you do, I just want you to know who you are... and out of knowing that, then you will know what to do.”
Throughout my life and still to this day, I like to do a lot of different things. Sometimes I’m backup dancing, sometimes I’m styling or re-making clothes. Sometimes I’m singing, sometimes I’m doing who knows what, to be honest. Probably something ridiculous that one day I will regret posting on social media! But hey, yolo! Right?!
I’ve also been a nanny, and I’ve worked at Chick-Fil-A…but none of those things told me who I was. Shoot, if that were the case id be exhausted by now! Trying to be all those different people.
So, instead of asking God “what do you want me to do?”, I began asking Him to remind me of who I am. The Lord reminded me of a video my mom found recently of me from when I was a little girl. In the video, I pick up the mic from our little Karaoke machine and I said “I (long pause) love (long pause) Jesus”.
I felt like He took me back to when I was a little girl, to remind me that I was a daughter. Before I was old enough to have any kind of job title or social status. Before I walked through a painful season, or won or lost or succeeded or failed. Before all of life had happened, I was HIS. And when I know I’m His, I will freely tell the world I love Him, I’m loved by Him, and I will share what ALL He has done for me.
Not only did this change how I saw myself and my situation, but it changed how I saw other people. I stopped looking at what he or she did or didn’t, does or doesn’t do, and began to look at who they are. A son. A daughter. HIS kid! Sometimes it can be hard to walk in relationship with people once we realize we may not like certain ways they do things, or if we feel like we’ve been wronged by them in some way. But if we see them for who they truly are, and not just what they’ve done or do, we can walk together in real relationship and a genuine love for one another.
Before anything else you’ve ever been, you were His. You are not what you do, or what you’ve done. You are not the model, the dancer, the singer, the actor, the speaker, the brains, the athlete or the muscles that come along with that. Although it’s easy to find temporary confidence in these things because they’re all things the world has a tendency to hold highly and admire, these things will never truly satisfy our soul or fulfill our purpose. Whether we ever acknowledge it or not, our souls long for MORE. To belong. To be accepted. To know who we are, and whose we are.
Life with Jesus is an adventure and it’s a journey. The titles people give you throughout this life will likely change many, many times.... but this truth will never change. You belong. You are accepted. You are child of God. You are HIS!
Originally posted on Live Original with Sadie Robertson