Chasing the wind

Ah those teenage years can be filled with moments of angst, searching and testing.  The phase of our life when we are supposed to start figuring out who we really are. 

Is it not why we are graced by adolescence? 

The search for identity, for purpose.  The striving for popularity, which at its core is a mere attempt to find a place of belonging and affirmation of love. 

When we ask the questions:
     “Am I liked?”
                    “Do I matter?”
                                   “Do I belong?”

As I tickle 40 and look back to those teenage years, I can tell you that it is an endless cycle that will suffocate you into adulthood if you allow it.  Chasing affirmation from the world is a bit like chasing the wind.  Sure, it can be exhilarating at first, in a wind-in-your-face, hair-tousling effortlessly for the perfect Instagram shot sort of way...
 
...but exhausting when you realize that there is no finish line, and keeping up demands a pace that is impossible to maintain.
 
Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. 1 John 2:15-17 (NLT)

I recently completed a training to become a registered Holy Yoga instructor, more on that later, but during our intensive retreat, founder Brooke Boon reminded us of a truth that I learned nearly 10 years ago which transformed my search of who I really am…

“We are called to be image bearers [of Christ], not image creators.”

We don’t have to create who we are, or hide behind facades of who we’d like to be. 

We have already been created, in His image, for His purposes. 

The work before each of us then, is one of discovery.  As we learn more about God, we learn more about ourselves.  We learn more about the image that we were created to reflect.  We learn how to chose light, not darkness.  We learn how to use the very passions and talents that God uniquely put in each of us for good in the world, for His glory.

That is who you really are.

So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.  Genesis 1:27(NLT)

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.  Before you were born I set you apart!  Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV)