I knew what the Word of God said about me, but it wasn’t until I was sort of out of that protective bubble and I was around people who were saying different things, who had different ideologies and philosophies and values and morals, that I had to make my own choices about whether or not I was gonna live in accordance with what other people thought who I should be and the labels that they were placing on me, the freedoms that they thought I should have that made sense to them coming from their worldview and their frame of reference. Or whether or not I was gonna let the freedoms and the boundaries and the identity and the value and the morals that God says about me, whether I was gonna let that actually frame my perspective, frame my thinking, and govern my behavior.

[Music]

I was probably in college yeah when I

really begin to understand and

internalize and probably really digest

what it meant to have my identity rooted

in Christ and the reason why that is is

because I just grew up in a great family

a strong family a church life’s kind of

family you know kind of engrained in my

whole world I have great parents and

great siblings and we were taught the

scriptures I knew what the Word of God

said about me but it wasn’t until I was

sort of out of that protective bubble

and I was around people who were saying

different things who had different

ideologies and philosophies and values

and morals that I had to make my own

choices about whether or not I was gonna

live in accordance with what other

people thought who I should be and the

labels that they were placing on me the

freedoms that they thought I should have

that made sense to them coming from

their worldview and their a frame of

reference or whether or not I was gonna

let the freedoms and the boundaries and

the identity and the value and the

morals that God says about me whether I

was gonna let that actually frame my

perspective frame my thinking and govern

my behavior and so I started making

those choices with a lot of bumbles and

a lot of stumbles and a lot of missteps

the identity of Christ became ingrained

in my own reality I realized that God

you know doesn’t have grandkids that

you’re either his child on your own not

riding the coattails of anybody else or

not and so I was already a Christian but

being a Christ follower became my rooted

identity when I was at that stage in my

life and I’m grateful because it’s

carried me ever since

you