You know how teenagers cover their feelings of awkwardness by being cool?  Well, I was not one of those teens, not because I wasn’t socially awkward, but just because I wasn’t cool.  While I am now much more self-confident and secure than I was as a teenager, it’s funny how that identity has persisted.  Just a few years ago it reared up again (I’m in my forties!).  While helping set up for an anti-human trafficking event, a ministry that is close to my heart, I met a lovely young woman who was also helping.  She was interested in what I was doing, engaging, and super nice, but I could barely look her in the eye.  Instead of being able to connect over this important issue, I was so filled with shame at the overwhelming thought, “I’m wearing ugly jeans and the wrong shoes,” that I just wanted to disappear.  I felt like I could hardly breathe and could barely continue the conversation.

Thankfully, this was so ridiculous, it helped my see that I needed to bring this to God and ask for healing and growth.  He is setting me free from those old thought patterns and “mis-identity”.  As He takes my eyes off my own self-consciousness, I have greater freedom to see and love people and delight in them.

…Just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Romans 6:4

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:  The old has gone, the new is here!  2 Corinthians 5:17