I Am No Longer What Happened To Me

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There is a thing that happens to us when we experience trauma, or we find ourselves the victim of abuse, violence or a tragedy. 

 It's a thing that sometimes finds us sometimes later in life when repressed memories or feelings come flooding to the surface.  Or in many cases, it simply hangs over us like a cloud, always there, never really allowing the sun through. 

 What am I talking about? 

 It's the thing that happens when we lose our identity in what happened to us so completely that we believe we are defined by it.  It's when we become synonymous with what happened to us, and without that identity, we don't even know who we are. 

 I know this intimately, as do many of you who are reading this.  But we don't have to live this way.  The self that has been created when we lose ourselves in what happened to us, is a false self.  It is not who we really are.

 Who we are instead is defined by the great love of God, the One who is constantly speaking into our brokenness and the identity crises we create and says, "Behold, I am making all things new." 

 Imagine what it would be like to live your life free from your past---free from the ways you have defined yourself after past trauma, heartache and wounding. 

 I read this wonderful poem today by Tiffany Aurora:

 Say it with me: 

 "I am no longer,
what happened,
to me.
I am now
what happened--
after what happened
to me--
Finally. Healed." - Tiffany Aurora

 Read this poem today and let yourself hear the words being spoken.  Live into the new things that God desires to make in your life.  Discover your new identity in Christ--an identity drawn from what is real, good and true. 

 And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen. 

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