Defining… Webster says it is determining the limits, describing the properties… to define is to determine or decide…
What is it that defines you? What determines the way you live your life, the way you spend your time? What factors determine the significance of your very existence? Or who/Who…..?
Can you give a definite answer to that ? It gets complicated to think about for me…and has changed somewhat over the years. My desire is that Jesus Christ is the Who that defines my choices. I don’t always get it right, but I keep trying, and He keeps helping and forgiving.
When I was a child, my parents were the defining element. There were boundaries, very tight ones. I somewhat resented them at the time, but realize as an adult that there was much security in them. Most of my limits were plainly set and decided for me.
As a teenager and young adult, I struggled with defining who I was…it began to be up to me to determine, and it was hard…
I am a wife. When I was a young married woman in a new community, my home-town husband defined me. I got a little frustrated sometimes at being ‘Pinkham’s wife’….the badge he wore defined him, and rightly so…but it sure didn’t define me ! I loved being ‘Kerry’s wife’….but seemed to seldom hear myself to be defined that way.
I am defined by my work. I am a hairdresser. When I meet someone in the grocery store, excuses are offered for the bad hair day. (I promise ….I’m really not inspecting every head of hair I see… :) ….I am NOT the hair police either!!! …)
When we had children, I became largely defined by them. I am a mother. Their mother. My life was lived out meeting their needs and participating in their activities…making choices for them and trying to help them learn to make good decisions.
Now they are grown, one has children of his own. My definition changed… I’m being re-defined… I am MiMi…. (it’s great, by the way… )
It is a process that will be ever-changing as long as I exist. The roles change, the circumstances of life change, and we grow and change with life as it passes.
Moses asked for a definition…he wanted a name....
“Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM’. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”(Ex. 3:13-14)
God says ‘I AM’…. and He IS… Eternal and unchanging in power and character. Stable and secure. He has His very Being of Himself…only Himself. Hard to comprehend….
He says “I AM”…..and I say ‘Yes….You ARE !!’
But I am ever changing, '...being transformed into His likeness..' (2 Cor. 3:18 NIV)'..our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like Him.' (2 Cor. 3:18 The Message)
Hallelujah.
