Identity Crisis: When You Struggle to Believe God Likes You

 I flip through the pages of the catalogue I get in yesterday’s mail. The girl on the cover looks cute, with her long brown hair flowing down past her shoulders and her blunt, straight bangs. She grips a “I got you Babe” porcelain coffee cup with a big red heart stamped on the front. She smiles down at a stout bulldog with droopy cheeks and pink, wet tongue and has the word “Marlowe” sharpied on her arm. I study her outfit, her hairstyle, her expression and wonder if I could pull this look off, too. It’s not simply her plaid flannel shirt in bright patchwork that draws me, or the way she perches jauntily on top of the brown, antique desk. She is advertising an identity of strength. She appears indifferent to the camera, engrossed and happy in the moment, confident to be who she is. Her appearance is actually a bit of a mess: her hair is disheveled, her jeans are torn, and there are crumpled papers littering the desk where she sits.  But she seems to not care about the disarray one bit. She just sits there, gazing at her drooling bulldog and smiling. And, even though this is a secular advertisement for women’s clothing, I am captivated by something else, something deeper. Is there truly joy and freedom to be had when we embrace God’s invitation to be exactly who He invites us to be? I was not so sure . . . Join me over in the Recovery Room, a series created by Seth Haines, author of Coming Clean: A Story of Faith, to read the rest of this post. In the Recovery Room, we are real about the stuff that's gotten in the way of us living a life with God.For me, I've cared way too much about what people think of me. I've cared more about the opinion of people rather than of God.

Have you ever had to recover from something sometime, too? Come on over to Seth's to read my story and leave a comment and let me know.