I lost myself for a long time. I rejected myself for a good hot minute. I lived fractured for awhile. In that order.
We never really know how our identities are tied to, or found in, other things until we’re stripped of them.
I experienced this with the losses of my career, child, and father, and as they trickled out to create secondary losses, like loss of identity, purpose, and self. Even as I sought to live from my identity in Christ, I still didn’t accept or love ME.
God’s commands to love others and live humbly morphed into a subtle, sinful self-hatred and rejection of His love for me and who He created me to be.
Even those who seek the Lord can live twisted lives, but those who keep on seeking will find untruths untangling in time.
I’ve spent the last few years seeking refuge in God’s love, being deeply convicted and pruned, growing and healing, learning to love myself as He loves me and how to live out my passions and use them for His glory and the good of others. This work has been excruciatingly painful at times and extremely worth it.
Have you ever sat down to take inventory of the parts of yourself you reject (and thought about why)?
(And I’m not talking sin here but that is important to examine as well).
When’s the last time you’ve taken an inventory of your likes, passions, and the things, places, and people that make you come alive or feel like yourself?
If you struggle with rejecting parts of yourself or feel like you’ve lost yourself somewhere on your journey, lean into this work.
It’s hard and holy.
My Life Worth Living Journal is a tool I recommend that offers space to reflect and take inventory of these things.
Here’s to untangling the lies we believe about ourselves that break us with the Lord’s truth and love that bind us.
Here’s to loving ourselves as the Lord loves us, with all of our unique quirks and passions, so that we can love others.
Let me know in the comments what “quirk” or passion you’re learning to embrace. Let’s cover one another in love and encouragement.
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