Devotional Thought of the Day:

³⁶  For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen. Romans 11:36 (NLT)

Your boat—your talents, your hopes, your achievements—is worth nothing whatsoever unless you leave it in Christ’s hands, allowing him the freedom to come aboard. Make sure you don’t turn it into an idol. In your boat by yourself, if you try to do without the Master, you are—supernaturally speaking—making straight for shipwreck. Only if you allow, and seek, his presence and captaincy will you be safe from the storms and setbacks of life. Place everything in God’s hands. Let your thoughts, the brave adventures you have imagined, your lofty human ambitions, your noble loves, pass through the heart of Christ. Otherwise, sooner or later, they will all sink to the bottom together with your selfishness.  (1)

It is amazing how much our identity is wrapped up in things. Who we are is wrapped up in what we are able to do far more than we think.  Far more than is good.  

You don’t believe this, lose your driver’s license on a trip!!  You can’t rent a car, you have trouble checking into your hotel ( lucky I am staying with someone), There will be a myriad of things that will become impossible, others that just become difficult..  Take away the mask that we thought was our identity, and we think we lost our identity. We get stressed ad anxious; we try to come up with a million logical options for replacing what was lost.

Not the driver’s license, or the tablet, or the home.

Our identity.  Or what we perceive our identity to be.

WE have to remember that our identity is found, not in things, but in Christ.  For if we died with Him and have risen in Him, then He is our identity.

St Josemaria understood this, as his early ministry was spent in a war-torn state, where he had to hide his priesthood from those where killing priests, as he left his beloved homeland.  The lesson is not one easily learned, but it is one we need to be reminded of daily.

Before I am Pastor, before I am Dt’, before I am Kay’s husband, William’s daddy, before I am a son.  Before I am a driver and resident in the state of California.

I am His.

That’s enough to get me through this life.

It will be enough for you as well.

AMEN.

Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). Friends of God (Kindle Locations 540-545). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.