“Pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.” Who are you? Who do you claim to be? What do others say about you? How have others defined or redefined you? Who do you now have to be to keep up with the copied image you now portray yourself to be? It’s challenging, difficult and exhausting trying to be someone else so will the real you please come forward. Not the fake persona or the stolen identity you want others to believe is really you or the person created out of envy, shame, or jealousy but the real you God so graciously created in his divine image and likeness that he calls very good and is pleasing and a joy to know. At times, our exaggerated exterior self is in quick and hot pursuit of identity masks to hide behind or seeking accessories to accessorize and build up a new self-image or obtain a quick-change outer garment to quickly be someone different at work, be someone different at home and even have a different private secret identity when no one is looking or when no one else is physically around. Our profile says one thing, our online pictures show someone else. What we say or do can say one thing about ourselves and depending on who is around can say something different about us. Either way, our true self doesn’t shine through. We hide, we worry, we will not show or invite others to see the goodness God has chosen to place deep inside of us. World views, peer pressure, family and friend influences, fake personas, desired successes, and competitive milestones can shape or reshape our true person. Simply wanting to be a different version of who you really are can overwhelm and dominate us so we choose to be someone different perhaps the person everyone else wants us to be or the person we think will make us the happiest. If we look into a mirror with honest intent, without lies or deceit, we will find the person God happily created you to be. For God graciously looks so beyond what you can see and sees the beautiful, best version of you that you were meant to be. God placed deep down inside of you the grace of righteousness, and the gift of deep devotion to God and to goodness. God gave you everlasting faith and unconditional love to match it. He flooded you with eternal holy patience and blessed gentleness beyond measure to be the real true self He graciously created you to be.
