This week is a crazy one for anybody involved in Life Teen: it’s Convention week. This week hundreds of youth ministers, DREs, priests, musicians, and Core members come to Arizona to fellowship and pray.
It’s an interesting week for me, because two very different parts of my life come together. In some ways, I still get to be behind-the-screens like I am each day working on LifeTeen.com. Other times, I’m in the spotlight (literally, because Matt and I give three talks during Life Teen Training Convention).
I’ve been praying about identity a lot this week, asking the Lord “Who am I? Which side of me is the real side?” Now, I don’t always hear God in a crystal-clear audible voice, but I do think He has an answer for me. Earlier this week, one of the speakers at Convention was using a clip from The Lion King. I loved that movie as a kid, but I haven’t seen it for probably ten years. I walked in partway through the clip, when the spirit of Mufasa was speaking to Simba about his destiny. As his cloudy countenance rolled away, Mufasa repeated the line, “Remember who you are.”
Okay, I know it’s a kids’ movie and not a burning bush or heavenly dove. I’m sure God had better ways to get my attention. But that line was how He answered my worries.
God knows who we are – I mean, how could he not know us after He made us? He doesn’t just “know well the plans [He] has” for us, He knows us! (Thanks to Jeremiah for the quote.) God sees us outside of time, outside of whatever place we’re in at this exact moment. He gets to see us as complete, beautiful stories of life. How does this tie into my experience of two parts of life? It reminded me of this: my identity is rooted in God. The more I run to Him, the more I know who he is – the more I’ll know myself. A few days ago, a priest friend of mine and I were talking about what it means to made in the “image and likeness” of God. He used the metaphor of a painter doing a self-portrait. Even though we’re a creation, we reflect the Creator in a unique way.
So in the midst of a jam-packed Life Teen Training Convention, God had something to say to me. This week, I’ll be striving to ‘remember who I am,’ and whose image I’m made in. The more I pray and reflect on that, the more authentic I can be as a follower of Christ.
See you next week, friends.
