Ann Voskamp: How the Cross Shapes Your Identity | Better Together TV

oftentimes the image that is reflecting back to us from the mirror is not really what we see we are still seeing the child um who was wounded a long time ago um and how we shaped our identity as a child is projected onto our future and for me as a kid i was bullied in elementary school to the point that i ended up cutting myself i wanted to disappear i wanted to be invisible i wanted to somehow bleed out of some of the pain um and in my mind i told myself i was unwanted i wasn't likable because that is what was mirrored to me by the other kids in my classes so it took me a long time and maybe i'm still working that through who am i when i look in the mirror and as i said earlier this week i am a woman of chronic soul amnesia i'm constantly forgetting who i am so for me that literally meant i went ahead and had a cross tattooed right on my wrist to remind myself this is who i really am i don't know what your past looks like and sometimes we feel like we're um we have sort of a scarlet letter that we're carrying around because of our past and people have gone ahead and identified us by something in our past that we can't change that part of our story but when we go ahead and identify with christ and say no the cross this is my scarlet letter this is who i really am so for me it's it's tracing that cross on my wrist and really believing that um this this cross is what pays the price for everything for me this cross gives me the gift of peace through everything this cross yes it it does say i am broken but it renames me his beloved so that one scarlet cross on my wrist and for years before i had it tattooed i'd take a pen and i'd write it right on my wrist to remind myself this is who i really am that scarlet letter cross that's my penance it's my providence it's my path it's my protection it's my purpose it's my passion it's my peace that cross signifies jesus and he is my person and and that is what started to shape my identity um really cruciform that the form and shape of my identity would be formed and shaped like a cross because i think that is what ultimately transforms us right at the core of who we are so now when i look in the mirror i yeah i see the wrinkles and the time that's passed and the things that i've gotten wrong but i can look in the mirror and say because of jesus i can accept that i've gotten things wrong i can accept ownership for the things that i've gotten wrong and i can accept that i am still accepted i think oftentimes we are insecure because we don't have a secure attachment to a person the person of jesus christ the person who is our person in all things and if we have a secure attachment to jesus we can look in the mirror and see ourselves as fully accepting the story as it was but because we are now in christ we realize that we ourselves are fully accepted that's our true reflection and then we can turn to other women around us the community around us and we can be of reflection to them about who they are now in christ and say to them you know what you are a reflection of the imago day and when i look at your story and i look at you all i see is a story of hope being written into the lines of your life and you know what wherever you are whatever scarlet letter you think you're carrying when you're in christ and you have been bought and paid with the blood of jesus at the cross you may believe in god but never ever ever forget and for me this was mind-blowing to realize it was track with me on this it's god who believes in you if christ is in you every morning the sun rises and you get to rise that's god saying he believes in all your glorious possibility enough even to love you to death the only one who's ever loved you to death that he believes because christ is in you he believes in the story that he's writing through you he believes in you because christ is in you as a gift that the world needs so god's mercies are new every morning not not as an obligation to you but as an affirmation of you so we could be the women who turn to other women and say you know what i don't know how you see you but this is how god sees you hi everybody i hope you enjoyed this video subscribe today and you'll never miss a new upload thanks for being a part of our better together community

Channel: Better Together TV

Views: 10,991

Rating: 4.9573712 out of 5

Keywords: identity in christ, ann voskamp, lisa harper, nona jones, elaine fisher, identity in christ priscilla shirer, knowing your identity in christ, our identity in christ jesus, finding your identity in christ, ann voskamp one thousand gifts, ann voskamp the broken way, ann voskamp hillsong, ann voskamp if gathering 2020, better together, better together tv, better together tv full episodes, laurie crouch, tbn, BTTVTBN, B2T8, B2E3T8, T8E3R7, L5C2, my identity in christ, women's ministry

Id: Q_cTnZvy06I

Length: 5min 46sec (346 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 13 2020