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December 15, 2022 15 mins

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Have you ever been in a place where you asked yourself or said to yourself – Who Am I? Or I don’t even know who I am? Especially in seasons of change, when your children go to college, when you’ve experienced great loss like a death, divorce, or death of a friendship. Or how about if you’ve changed career paths by choice or by force? So many labels tend to make up our identity that we begin to believe what we do, what roles we play are who we are. Those are just descriptors, evidence of who we  are, but they are not the essence of who we are. 

Additional Resources:
https://www.amazon.com/Winning-War-Your-Mind-Thinking/dp/B08FRND9CR/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2SQIU5IOQ6YMT&keywords=winning+the+war+in+your+mind+groeschel&qid=1671125022&sprefix=winning+the+war%2Caps%2C137&sr=8-1

Affirmations of who you in in Christ: https://finds.life.church/pastor-craig-groeschels-list-of-positive-affirmations-to-renew-your-mind/#:~:text=It's%20who%20I%20am.,every%20day%20of%20my%20life.

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Boundaries-Goodbyes-Loving-Without/dp/B09XJ7LBMW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=23MOSP4B96RQW&keywords=good+boundaries+and+goodbyes+lysa+terkeurst&qid=1671125155&s=audible&sprefix=goodbyes+%2Caudible%2C122&sr=1-1


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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:15):
Welcome to and then it's a podcast, we look at what
comes after the struggle, atough season or a setback. My
name is Susie Chafin. And I amabsolutely passionate about
helping people transform fromstruggle and surviving, to
absolutely thriving. Today'stopic is called Who Am I? We're
going to be diving into thetopic of identity. Have you ever

(00:38):
been in a place where you askyourself or set yourself? Who am
I, or I don't even know who I amanymore.
Especially in seasons of change,like when your children go off
to college, and all of a suddenyour house is empty. Or when
you've experienced great loss,like death or divorce or a death

(01:01):
of a friendship?
Or how about if you've changedcareer paths by choice or even
by force. So many labels tend tomake up our identity, that we
begin to believe that what wedo, what roles we play, are who
we are. But those are justdescriptors. They're evidence of
who we are, but they're not theessence of who we are.

(01:23):
I want to share a story when mykids were growing up, we had
four, four kids. So we had areally, really busy household
between ballet soccer swim team,our weekends were packed and
youth who might be in a seasonlike that right now. I remember
one particular Saturday, we wereheaded to a long day of soccer

(01:44):
games, and we forgot the waterbottles. So we pulled into a CVS
so I could run in and grab somewater bottles. And I don't know
about you. But when I'm on amission, when I'm on task to get
groceries or water bottles, inthis case, I go in, I go out, I
don't, I'm not really focused onsaying hi to anybody or

(02:06):
catching up, my mission is toget the water and get going. So
I grabbed my waters at pay, andI'm jumping back into our black
Suburban. And as I'm putting thebag on the floor, on the
floorboard, I noticed that thefloorboard is 10. Michael,
that's, that's weird. Myfloorboard is black. And I look

(02:27):
around, and my seats. Those aretan leather too.
And just just the realizationsets in, I turned my head and I
see a man who is not my husband,who smiles and says to me, well,
well, hello there. And obviouslyinstantly, I am horrified. And I

(02:53):
can look right past him, seeinto the other black suburban,
parked right next to this one.
And inside that black suburbanis my husband and my four
children. All laughing andreally, really having a fun
time. delighting in my mistake.
So obviously, I quicklyapologize to the man totally

(03:15):
embarrassed, and I get back intothe right Suburban. And I got
into the suburban and Iremember, like looking at my
family and my husband and mykids going white. Why did you
not stop me? Why did you stopme? And they're like, oh, there
was no stopping you, Mom, youwere on a mission.
And mistaken identity, I wassure that suburban was mine. We

(03:39):
can do that life. Right?
Sometimes we mistake identity.
We think who we are, is in ourtitle, and our role, our
relationship. Today we're goingto look at how to really know
who you are. We're also going totake a look at see who God says
we are. And my hope is today,you're going to find your
identity in the beautiful uniquecreation that you are and not in

(04:02):
the roles you play.
Before you held any of the rolesyou hold currently are held
before, before you were in arelationship that wounded you
were before you were, you knowexperienced any kind of trauma
for the first time before youlearned that life can sometimes
hurt.

(04:24):
What kind of person would youdescribe yourself. And I don't
want you to maybe describe theperson that you are under
stress. When you're frustratedand angry and you lash out and
you say things that you don'tmean to but your true self you
know that the person thatessence of you the
characteristics that you want tobe known by. And I'd encourage

(04:45):
you to take a moment to pauseand if you can take a pen and
paper and write down theattributes and let me help you
with some ideas in case you'rewondering what those might be.
Maybe you feel like you areA person of integrity that you
want to do the right thing thatyou want to be a person who can
be trusted and known. Maybe it'sthat you want to be loving,

(05:09):
maybe you just love to serveother people and love to just
love on other people. Maybe it'sbeing friendly or compassionate.
Or maybe you're somebody whoreally is driven by being
hardworking and having a strongwork ethic. Maybe it's been a
significant, maybe having peoplesee you for who you are. And
what you do that you make acontribution and that your

(05:32):
contribution is, is fantastic.
And the world.
Maybe you're generous, maybeyou're honest, maybe you're
loyal. Maybe you are a anadventure seeker, you love the
spontaneous, thrill seekingthings to do. If you're
organized, fun, funny,ambitious, creative, logical.

(05:54):
Maybe you love the beach, maybeyou love to dance, maybe you
appreciate music.
Let's go back to the suburbanstory. We can attach an identity
to a role we play. But we canfind ourselves in the wrong
Suburban. Better stated theproblem of attaching our
identity to our roles is thatwhen change happens, and change,

(06:17):
at some point always happens. Wecan feel like we're no longer
who we are.
Gonna give an illustration. Oneof the things my husband and I
like to do together is walkespecially when we're visiting
our boat and San Diego, acrossfrom Marina is harbor Island
drive, which is a front row seatto the gorge gorgeous,

(06:40):
absolutely gorgeous, stunningSan Diego Harbor. And there's a
path there that we can walk andwe can see the Navy base on
Coronado Island, the CoronadoBridge in the beautiful downtown
skyline. We can see the harbor,we can see boats, we can see an
occasional seal or dolphin. Andrecently, we were walking this
path and my husband stepped downand he just buckled in pain. He

(07:01):
tore his meniscus, and all of asudden, he can't walk. But that
doesn't change the fact that heloves to walk that he loves
being in nature and seeing thebustling harbor. He just has a
torn meniscus, he's temporarilynot able to walk that doesn't
define him at his core.
Or let me give us an examplethat might hit a little more

(07:22):
close to home to you.
In the next episode, we're goingto talk to Jason heat brink. And
you're going to hear about hisstory and how after working and
navigating, and being a provenleader in his organization for
16 years, and an instant, helost his title, he lost his
role. And it didn't mean he wasnow no longer a leader or a

(07:45):
visionary or disciplined he wasstill all of those things. He
just didn't hold a title at thatparticular organization anymore.
Or if you're a wife, andsuddenly you lose your husband
to death, or divorce, does thatchange who you are intrinsically
at the core? Totally agreed. Itchanges a lot of things for

(08:06):
sure. But it doesn't change thefact that you still are a
loving, supportive, caringperson that has a lot to offer.
If you're a parent, if you loveyour kids, and you support your
kids and are a great mom, that'scan't be your identity either
because that empty nest iscoming. And even in the most
ideal of circumstances, eventhough you're not feeding them

(08:30):
and you're not wandering themand seeing them daily, it
doesn't mean you aren't stillthe person who loves them and
cares for them and what's thebest that can't ever be taken
from you.
If you are successful in yourcareer path, regardless of the
title, it is because of yourwork ethic, your problem solving
skills, the characteristics youembody.

(08:51):
Your success is because of thosecharacteristics, not because of
the title you hold. The problemwith attaching our identity to
the title is when change comeswe wrongly and mistakenly feel
like we've been erased orforgotten, or insignificant.
Changes in roles are oftenopportunities to reposition,

(09:12):
pivot, think adapt and grow tothe next level. The attributes
that are uniquely you, yourcreativity, your loyalty, your
great heart, who you are, thosecan't be taken from you. How you
use them is the great adventure.
Now I want to pivot a bit I wantto share with you what the Bible
has to say about who you are.
And Philippians four, eight,Paul wrote, and now do your

(09:35):
brothers and sisters. One finalthing, fixed your thoughts on
what is true and honorable andright and pure and lovely and
admirable. Think about thingsthat are excellent and worthy of
praise.
God says that when we put ourtrust in Him, we have no
identity and we have the bestidentity. And you might be

(09:56):
thinking like What do you meanlike putting my trust in him?
LikeIt's kind of a crazy world. I
don't know if I want to put mytrust in him. But I want you to
know that God loves you. Godloves you. God loves you so much
that He sent Jesus His Son, tonot to die on a cross to take on
your sin, so that you could haveeternal life.

(10:21):
And if you want to look at somescriptures to go a little bit
further into that, you can lookat John 316, or John 1010. But
when we choose to live with ourlife, interest in him, it
doesn't mean that suddenly ourlife becomes easy and worryfree.
But what it does do is itchanges our identity. Because

(10:42):
we're a new creature in him.
We're not defined by our past.
We're not defined by baddecisions, we make bad choices.
We all have those. That'sexactly why we need Jesus. were
defined by what God says we areforgiven, redeemed, free, loved.

(11:06):
Craig Groeschel, he's a pastorof Life Church, he wrote a
fantastic book of winning,called winning the war in your
mind, I would really encourageyou to download that or to go by
it. There's so many great thingsin that book that would really
help your mindset. Part of thatcenters on telling yourself
affirmations of who God says youare. And I love that because it

(11:30):
goes right back to inPhilippians, four, eight,
thinking about fixing ourthoughts on what is true and
honorable and right pure andlovely and admirable. The things
that God says that we are notwho are mistakes or things that
we wish we could have do overson it, say we are. I'm going to
put a link to these affirmationsso that you can read them

(11:52):
yourselves and you can printthem out and you can remind
yourself who you are. Again,these come directly from Craig
Groeschel, I'm quoting him.
And these are some a list ofpositive affirmations for anyone
who's in Christ.
I am strong and mighty. I havethe same power that raised
Christ from the dead dwellinginside of me. I am a weapon of

(12:16):
righteousness and a world ofdarkness. I am not my past. I am
not what I did. I am who Godsays I am. He says I'm forgiven.
He says I am redeemed. He says Iam free.
I am not a hostage to unhealthythoughts. The weapons I fight
with are not the weapons of thisworld. I have divine power to
demolish strongholds. I have themind of Christ directing my

(12:40):
thoughts. I have the word of Godguiding my steps. I demolish
every pretension that setsitself up against the knowledge
of God and I take every thoughtcaptive and make it obedient to
Christ. Worry is not my master,I trust in God, His peace guards
my heart guards my mind andguards my soul in Christ Jesus.

(13:02):
My God has not given me a spiritof fear, but a spirit of power
of love of a sound mind. And theLord is my helper. I will not be
afraid. I am not a slave to myhabits. I am not a prisoner to
an addiction. I have beenrescued from the power of
darkness and brought into thekingdom of God's light. I am

(13:24):
empowered. I am chosen, I amcalled. I am a masterpiece of
God created in Christ Jesus, todo good works which God prepared
in advance for me to do. My Godwill bless me abundantly so that
in all things at all times,having all I need, I will abound

(13:45):
in every good work.
My God is for me, my God is withwith me. No weapon formed
against me shall prosper.
Nothing can separate me fromGod's love, not death, not
demons, not the present, nor thepast. More power on earth will
ever separate me from the loveof God that is in Christ Jesus,

(14:06):
my Lord. I am not what I have orwhat I buy. My identity is in
Christ alone. And by God'spower, I can change.
My life belongs to God. Daily, Iseek him and daily he directs my
steps. I know his voice, and heleads me to His perfect will. My

(14:30):
confidence is in Christ andChrist alone. Because his Spirit
lives within me. I can doeverything he calls me to do.
Aren't those fantasticaffirmations. Again, that comes
directly from Craig Groeschel.
And I would encourage you toprint it off to read it to
remind yourself over and overand over who God says you are.
Who you are is not somethingthat can be taken from you. It

(14:55):
is your essence nurture youBe the best version of you. You
can do everything he calls youto do.
Before we wrap up, can you do mea favor if you could rate and
review the podcast that would besuper helpful. And if you found
today's content helpful or wouldlike to share it inside I would

(15:17):
love to hear from you. Be sureto subscribe, like and follow
and stay up to date with thelatest episodes. We'll see you
next time.
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