Today on Perry and Shawna Mornings we launch into a week long conversation on finding our true identity. 

First we look at what our culture tells us about identity—it’s really about how you measure up:  You’re loved if you’re at the top and you’re not if you’re at the bottom.  Shawna uses Max Lucado’s children’s book “You Are Special,” to pin this lie to the mat.  Our identity comes from God as a gift:  We are created by God in his image and God loves us so much that he sent his Son to die for us! 

Then Perry shares how he longs to live as Tim Keller says: “In the freedom of self-forgetfulness.”  That is, not finding our identity in what we do good or bad, but rather finding it in Jesus’ extravagant love for us while were we still sinners to make us sons and daughters of God! 

And finally maybe you’re like us—the gap between who God says we are and who we really are in real time is so huge.  That can be so discouraging.  But’s there’s hope!  Jesus has planted his life in us who follow him.  And as we give up trying harder and then submit our natural desires to his power at work in us, the gap narrows, little by little over the long journey. 

We can rest in the promise that he who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion!   (Phil. 1:6).