If I were to ask you who you are and what makes you unique, what would you say? Would you start with your job? Where you go to school? Who your friends are? Or share a special talent you’re known for? I think those are typical responses to my question, but are those the answers that give you your identity? After watching Bailey Maupin and Charlotte Smith’s White Chair Films, it really got me thinking about identity and how much power it holds over our lives.
I love that we are releasing Bailey and Charlotte’s films together because I think their stories are two sides of the same coin. Bailey is currently experiencing the highs and lows of being a college basketball player, while Charlotte has lived that life and gone on to play in professional leagues around the world and now finds herself an award-winning college basketball coach. When you watch both of their films, you see a struggle to find balance – in their identity and their walk with God.
Let’s be honest – we all get wrapped up in what we’re good at. Whether it’s a sport or your job or your place in your friend group, we all tend to lean into the thing that makes us feel successful. That’s normal, but it’s not sustainable. I recently heard a pastor say that we should never find our identity in things that can be taken away from us. You can lose your health, you can lose your looks, you can lose your job and you can even lose your mind, but you can never lose who you are in God. You can never lose how much God values and loves you.
All throughout Scripture, we find passages that tell us how much God values us. Psalms, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Romans and John are just a handful of books that talk about how much God loves us. He wants you to take on each day with confidence and peace knowing that he loves you perfectly and he’s always here for you. He claims you and will not let you down like jobs, friends, looks and even family can.
Like Bailey and Charlotte have learned in their journeys, balancing their identity and their gifts can be challenging. We’ve all been given gifts by God to use for his glory. He wants you to delight in your gifts and share them with others, but he doesn’t want you to be filled by them. We are to go to God for our confidence. Charlotte and Bailey both have quotes that perfectly sum up how they found that balance:
“You can be the greatest basketball player ever, but you can also share God’s word at the same time.” - Bailey Maupin
“Sports is not life, it’s a part of life and the sooner you can understand that, the easier it is to take hold of your true identity.” - Charlotte Smith
So again, I ask you – where does your identity come from?
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