God wants us to know that our prima

God wants us to know that our primary cues come from him. Our identity is found in his Son, who calls us to his service. We must learn to live under God’s smile, knowing that human smiles are mere frosting on that divine cake. Our sense of purpose and success must come from our identity as Christ’s servants.

The difficulty is maintaining the delicate balance between finding our identity and marching orders in Christ and loving people and Christ’s church with proper sensitivity. Human nature tends to move us in either direction. We can be so full of our identity as Christ’s servant that we become obnoxious and insensitive. Or, we easily respond so deeply to our people and their needs (after all, we’re pastors!), we take our identity and measure our worth by them. Most of us are insecure and are people pleasers and are too easily manipulated for good or evil. Yet we live under the orders of Christ. It is a difficult tension.