Identity theft...

Identity  theft...

There are lots of advertisements on tv about various products to prevent identity theft...but none really hit the mark for loosing your identity like big changes in life...all of the sudden the thing s you felt identified you are gone and you are left standing alone, feeling naked before the world...change can do that,,,you have to build trust in a new community, sign papers a new way, make decisions differently...

I remember going to the doctor with my mother when she was eighty, for whatever the reason, she saw her description written in the doctors notes, "white haired elderly woman"....she was insulted...that wasn't her!  She wasn't elderly! White haired, yes, but elderly?  We halfheartedly laughed....she was an artist, a mother, a wife, sister, a grandmother...those were her own identities....

It hit me in the face this weekend, out of the blue....over two rather insignificant items...first ,..for over 40 years, my husband and I were in leadership roles in the churches we were involved...elder,,teacher, staff, etc, etc...like the list Paul has in the epistles...and the pastor of the church I am attending, introduced a younger pastor/speaker, saying "he is here checking us out".  Innocuous, but it hit me, "I don't know anything about this and I am not part of the leadership anymore"....and my "identity" shifted...it had already done that..., I know...

Then we were talking again in our grief group, about what we want our identity to be....do we want to known as a "griever", broken, downcast,   Shrouded by grief ....
Or is grief a chapter of our book, one to be written and going on into a new chapter or identity?

But, what is our overall identity?  What do we want to known by?  Does a mantle of praise c over us or the burial wrappings...a robe of righteousness or unbelief ....
Is our identity stolen with the winds of change or are we stable in the storm....
Questions, I ask everyday...am I identified with the Lover of my soul?  Do I find my identity in the things, events around me?

Thank YOU for being my identity, that cannot be stolen.   Help me to wear the mantle of praise rather than a shroud of change, grief....not forgetting, but working on that new chapter...of life...thank YOU, also the the robe of righteousness, to be given ...not earned  by anything I do, but for who I am in Christ...a believer ....


"Shroud Definition
dictionary.search.yahoo.com
n. noun
A cloth used to wrap a body for burial; a winding sheet.
Something that conceals, protects, or screens.
under a shroud of fog.
One of a set of ropes or wire cables stretched from the masthead to the sides of a vessel to support the mast.
v. verb
To wrap (a corpse) in burial clothing.
To shut off from sight; screen.
To shelter; protect."

Psalm 42:11
Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

Hebrews 1:12
Like a cloak You will fold them up, And they will be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will not fail.”

Isaiah 61:10
I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.