Becoming 100% YOU - Part 1 of 5

This is a message I spoke at our young adults camp just recently. I really believe that it is something we need to continue to journey on our whole life. I hope these words will help you to either start your journey or be motivated to continue your journey to become 100% you.

Life is too short to do things that you don’t enjoy and not being yourself

People ignore the value of what they already have and who God has made them to be and are trying to be like someone else.

Nelson Mandella quoted a saying from Marianne Williamson
'Our deepest fear... is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.'

Have you ever asked yourself ‘who am I’?

If so what was your answer?

Do you answer with:
- I’m a teacher, graphic designer, connect leader, builder, student, wife, friend

Or do you answer with:
- I am a daughter/son of God, righteous, God gifted, loved.

It is important that we move beyond answering this question with a title, a label or role that you currently fulfil in your life. If you answer this question with a job description or an explanation of what you currently do in life, then this shows that you are hiding behind what you do.

This question ‘who am I’ challenges us to think about what makes us unique and makes us think about what God has placed in our life that sets us apart from everyone else. It also causes us to examine what makes us stand out from the crowd and makes us different from everyone else.

Who had trainer wheels on their bike when they were a kid?

While they were on, they protected and stabilised you and helped you go straight, but when your parents thought it was a good time to take them off, we begin to wobble and maybe fall off, but we get back on and do the same thing over again, until we learn how to balance.
This is what it’s like when we set off on the journey to discover who we really are.

I am still on this journey, while I was working at church I used to have people say to me all the time, you’re the pastors wife, you’re the girl behind the information desk, you’re the one in the church office, I would always respond with a smile, yeah that’s me. But on the inside there was something that was saying no actually I think I’m more than that. Yes that’s what I do, but it’s not who I am.

This is probably how they recognised me but we can often take that on board and hide behind these things that people put on us. But I didn’t know where to start to find out who I was. I began to hide behind the things I did, my job, Braden, but once I realised this I have been on a journey ever since to find out who I am in Christ and it is one I continue to battle with everyday.

The journey of identity I believe is a life long one which we must thoroughly explore if we are to discover who we really are. Once I decided to find out who I was I had to makes some sacrifices, I have had to detach myself from some people, comforts and securities and keep making a decision everyday to continue to do this so that I have nothing stopping me from moving forward.

Everyone has incredible potential but the only way to maximise it is to commit to the journey of becoming the person God created you to be.

When you are 100% confident in who you are as a person you need nothing else to define you.

Jesus is a great example of this. He wouldn’t conform to any mould placed upon him.

Matthew 16:13-16 ‘When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'

Jesus heard their answer but didn’t rush out to correct the people who said he was John the Baptist or Jeremiah and explain how wrong they were. It didn’t matter to him what the people thought of him.

This is such a great example of how we should be living our lives. Jesus modelled what it means to live being 100% yourself. He wasn’t held back by people’s feelings or approvals, He only cared about what His Father thought of Him.

So many Christians are not 100% about anything, especially their identity because many are not 100% sure of their own identity in him.

There is no one on this planet that is just like you or just like me. You have an individual thumb print, the iris in your eye is different to everyone else’s, you have a unique DNA code.

Braden and I get sent an email each week telling us where our baby is up to in its growth stage. This week it told me that it now looks like a miniature new born checking in at 10.9 inches (about the length of a ruler) and almost 1 pound. Its skin will continue to appear wrinkled until it gains enough weight to fill it out. Your baby's eyes are developed, though the iris (the colored part of the eye) still lacks some pigment. Your baby's lips are becoming more distinct, and the first signs of teeth are appearing as buds beneath her gum line.

Isn’t that so amazing! God already knows all about our baby, and has already created it like no one else on this entire earth.
Sometimes it is so much easier stealing someone else’s identity than spending time to find out who you are.

For example, I can't be anyone of you who are reading this right now, I can only be myself.

Our personality is something we need to cherish about each other and help each other discover who we are. It is part of what makes you ‘you’ and we need to embrace it.

Posted by: Andrea