The Best Identity

When my friends aren’t calling me “Schiffdeck” or “Young Pup,” my nickname is “Babygirl.” I’ll admit it: I have a thing for rap music. This might come as a surprise to most, considering I look nothing like your typical hardcore rapper. Keep in mind: looks are deceiving. In fact, my skills rival Lil’ Wayne, depending on how much I practice. I recently discovered the absolute best thing since sliced bread in the world of rap music: Lecrae. No longer do I have to worry about selecting the “clean” version of a specific song, thanks Lecrae’s status as a Christian rapper. His songs are filled with uplifting messages about missions, the gospel, and my personal favorite, our identity. In the song “Identity,” the chorus goes a little something like this:
I’m not the shoes I wear.
I’m not the clothes I buy.
I’m not the house I live in.
I’m not the car I drive.
I’m not the job I work.
You can’t define my worth,
by nothing on God’s green earth.
My identity is found in Christ, found in Christ.
(here’s the entire song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7W4I0tQZps)

Our identity is a constant worry for most people. We want to participate in the “right” things, hang out with the “right” people, and create the “right” legacy so we will never be forgotten. Our identities are quickly made into what we spend our time doing. As an example, some of my identities might be an “AZD member,” “agricultural education major,” or “Alyson’s dorky friend.” As awesome as those things are, we can never be fully satisfied with an identity because that doesn’t encompass all of our lives.

In fact, who hasn’t felt some frustration from their identity? My teammate Johanna and I were so incredibly excited to serve as state FFA officers and loved that part of our identity, however, we were just talking the other day about how frustrating it is when others don’t see past that one part of our life into the other things that make us unique. Everyone can relate to the frustration of “identity confusion,” whether it is confusion about someone else’s identity, or even your own.

The fact of the matter is, there is only one identity that we can have that is perfect, all-encompassing, and eternal. But the catch is: this identity is not found in a career, organization, or even group of friends. Going back to my boy Lecrae’s widom: this identity is found in Christ.

Right now you’re asking, “How on earth can we identify ourselves with Christ? We’re imperfect humans!” You’re exactly right. On our own, our identities are far from perfect, even if we strive for “good” qualities. An identity that is is Christ is found through complete submission of our lives to Him. An individual whose identity is in Christ has a personal relationship with Him and through that relationship adapts His character!

Check it out-- In 2 Corinthians 5:17 Paul describes this identity as “a new creation. The old is completely gone, and the new has come.”

The book of Ephesians is full of descriptions of our “new identity.” Eph. 4:22-23 says that “you were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self... and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” So according to this verse, we can be like GOD! That’s as classy of an identity as we can possibly get!

There are countless other places in the Bible that point out all of the qualities of our “new identity.” Here are just a few:

I am God’s Child... (John 1:12- “... to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God.”)

I am powerful, loving, and disciplined... (2 Timothy 1:7- “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.”)

I am secure... (Ephesians 2:20- “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”)

I have peace... (Ephesians 2:14- “For he himself is our peace...”)

More qualities of our identity can be found here: (http://www.persevering.org/perceiv.html)

“I’m not the clothes I wear, I’m not the car I drive...” Whatever it is we are currently known for, we can all find our identities in Christ if we surrender our lives to him. The rewards of this identity include the short-term benefits of peace, a purpose in life, and a great character, but the eternal reward is that everlasting relationship with our Savior, which is infinitely priceless. If you haven’t already found your identity in Christ, I encourage you to pursue the most rewarding identity imaginable!

A Coke and His Composure

Until Thursday, I was pretty sure that I had been completely desensitized from most hurtful words. #epicfail. Side note…word of wisdom for any fast food purchaser (no worries, I will compile more of these at the end of the summer): never, ever be mean to the drive-thru girl for fun. Not nice. So there I was, just chilling in the back drive-thru, minding my own business and attempting to decipher the noise coming through my headset enough to take orders, and all of the sudden THEY pull up.

After the “Can I take your order?” was stated, it began like a normal order. I heard the man on the other end say that he wanted a #10 with a diet coke, then it sounded like the microphone was submerged in water. I asked him to clarify, and changed the order to fit what I thought he had said. Then he asked to take off the initial item on his order, and asked to put it back on again. Needless to say, I was very confused. The volume of his voice increased as he began shooting demands my way. Every time I pushed a button on the screen, he yelled, “No!” quickly correcting me. My face was probably a very nice bright shade of pink at this point, because I was so incredibly frustrated. Regardless, I said a quick prayer for patience and poise. After asking him to repeat his entire order because I had absolutely no idea what he currently wanted, he freaked out even more. Being a people-pleaser, I have never actually had someone cuss me out. Well, I can definitely check that one off my bucket list. My new friend yelled words I have never heard before all the way up to my window, not even finishing his order. Thankfully, I managed to stay calm and professional during the entire fiasco.

I quickly called back one of my guy friends to handle this out-of-control guy, partly because I was fearful of being shanked, and partly because I was nearly in tears. Thankfully, Ray Ray efficiently handled the situation. Good thing my patience and peace did not come from my own power, or they might have run out very quickly.

As much as I like to sarcastically describe the situations in my life, I can honestly say that this was one of most tempting times this summer to lose control of my emotions. When people are attempting to push you over your limits, you can do one of two things:

1. Give in

2. Ask for help

It’s that simple. Believe me, self-control is not the easiest thing to will ourselves to have in any light. Especially when everything inside of you is screaming to panic. Let’s face it, to get anxious about the situation at hand seems like the go-to response. That is why it is so important to reach out for help. When we ask, God provides peace.

“Do be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” –Phillippians 4:6-7

AKA—Instead of getting upset, ask God for help in any situation. He will give you his peace that gives you a new way to look at life, and will guard you from further hurt.

This is not just a little dash of peace to make things easier, he follows this up with a huge band-aid for our hearts to guard them from further worry and anxiety. The power of prayer is one thing in life that is truly amazing.

So giving me the will power to stay calm with a bully in the drive-thru is not exactly the biggest miracle God has performed. But this just goes to show that he truly cares about every single thing that makes us tick. He is waiting for us to ASK him for help so he can give us this slice of his character.

Hopefully you don’t have people yelling at you this summer, but you may be caught in the midst of a stressful summer job or class. Instead of panicking when things get crazy, I challenge you to simply ask for His help and be amazed by how quickly he can transform your life.

McQuestion: Are you asking God for His peace in stressful situations?

Striving for the McPossible

In my entire life, I have never encountered anything nearly as intense as the lunch rush at McDonalds. This situation can only be described with the crazy mental pictures of drinks pouring everywhere, fries being shoved every which way, and angry customers who don’t understand that the dilemma at hand was created by their own lack of communication. As the front drive thru food-shover (my self-proclaimed title), I am usually the first one to take the blame for a slow moving line of cars. As much as I’d like to, sometimes it just does not seem like I can move fast enough. The biggest problem is, I also receive negative feedback if I miss a drink or forget to grab the second bag for the order. In the midst of the chaos, my manager Miss Barbara summed up the grand purpose of the McDonald’s drive thru. “We are striving to operate at 100% efficiency and 100% speed.” Seemed like a lose-lose situation to me.

The front drive thru is an art. Perfection is attainable for a certain amount of time, but it is still a constant struggle to keep up a fast pace while being diligent to double check every single order. Sometimes opposite traits aren’t so difficult to obtain after all when you are striving for total excellence instead of in each area. During a life chat, I discovered another situation in which we are asked to accomplish two things that seem so very different:

1. Humility:

Adjective: A modest or low estimate of one’s own importance

2. Confidence:

Noun: The feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something

Life confuses me. As we go through high school and college, we place a huge emphasis on building one’s confidence, specifically on ourselves. We love to preach the importance of “believing in yourself,” and “trusting yourself,” and other various cheesy things. At a first glance, it is easy to assume that the more confidence you have in yourself, the easier things are going to be and the more success you will experience. But let’s face the facts, it seems like the more chips you accumulate on the confidence board, the more you lose in the game of humility. The confidence we preach about is shallow and can be easily taken away from us.

So we also like to talk about this cool thing called humility. We hear all the time that “we should be humble,” never taking credit for the awesome things in our lives or “assume we are better than another person.” Confidence and humility seem to contradict each other.

In my own life, it seems like the more confidence I have built over the years, the harder and harder it is to not have pride in everything I have invested my time and energy in building up. My problem was that I connected the words confidence with the word pride. Confidence is different from the word pride in the fact that confidence has a deeper root than just oneself, because it is connected to a deeper purpose. In the same way, my view of “humility” was the same as of “shyness.” The truth is, “humility” is simply a humbling of ourselves that is caused by a greater purpose in our lives. Confidence and humility are one in the same in that they both describe how we view the purpose of our lives, and especially how we view the greatness of our Creator. We can be both confident in the faithfulness and ultimate purpose of Christ, and humbled by his perfection.

Connectedness (connecting the dots between different situations in my life and others) may be one of my top strengths, but there it is no stretch to make the connection between this week’s look at 2 Corinthians and Paul’s view of his creator.

“Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom, but according to God’s grace.” --2 Corinthians 1:12

Paul has full confidence in his actions because they were for the purpose of glorifying God by teaching and rebuking the Corinthians. He uses the word “boast” because God’s presence in our lives and His work through us is truly the only thing we can boast about, because nothing else is substantial enough. He is also humbled by this and realizes that he has no part of his, and in fact, all of the earthly things that surround him (worldly wisdom) are separate. He is so focused on God that he does not even see the presence of his talents and abilities and the world in the picture.

Paul knew that our lives are not our own. Every talent, ability, and even life situation we are blessed enough to experience and use was given to us. Since we have nothing, we have nothing to be confident or try to be humble about. Functioning on opposites is difficult, but easy when we can see the situation from a more encompassing point of view. This week, I challenge you to make confidence and humility in your life one of the same.

McQuestion: Are you functioning on the 100/100 vision in your life? Or is one side (confidence or humility) heavier than the other?

(The Real) Panda Express

“I don’t need to order anything, but I was just wondering if you have the panda toy?”-the most intriguing inquiry of the day at the drive thru from a very desperate mom. While I searched through the already pre-packed Happy Meals bags for the toy she was on the hunt for, she informed me that she had tried every single McDonald’s from Tennessee to Gulf Shores for this toy. Her daughter had all of the toys but the panda, and she would not, could not, rest until she completed her collection. Thankfully, our McDonald's was the end of their unique journey, and the Mickey D’s-toy-collecting little girl went home happy as a clam.

Funny thing is, I still remember my own Mom pulling this kind of stunt at McDonald’s many, many years ago. I also recall a story in which my Dad would ride his motorcycle over to a Wendy’s 20 miles away every week to buy my Mom a new Smurf’s collectable glass. Love makes parents/people do some pretty crazy things.

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are!” -1 John 3:1a

Our parent’s love is incredible, but even their Happy Meal toy-searching love looks tiny in comparison to God’s love for us. In fact, he loved us so much that he gave up his only son to die for each and every one of our sins. Mom and Dad love us so incredibly much, and it is mind-blowing to think about that there is a love greater than even that.

Give up perfect son > Happy Meals toys.

McQuestion 3: Will you accept a love far immeasurable than people are capable of?

All Part of the McUniform

My favorite thing about the drive thru is the fact that you never know what will happen next. This afternoon a mom and teenage daughter battled it out over a quarter pounder today with the entire McDonald’s headset-wearing crew as their witnesses. (Note: If you are going to have an emotional breakdown, don’t do it while waiting in line at Mickey D’s, we WILL laugh at you) At one point during the day, no one responded to my “Welcome to McDonald’s, how may I help you,” call when a car pulled up to the speaker. A few minutes later an elderly man pulled up to my window and declared that he just “forgot” to order. Poor guy.

Although my new friends Cheryl, Jency, and I get a kick out of the silly things people tend to do in the drive thru, we have already witnessed a situation or two that really made us think. And I’m talking the kind of thinking that has nothing to do with what kind of sauce you want with your McNuggets.

Yesterday a couple pulled up to my window to pay for their lunch. After giving them their change, they asked me how much the bill was for the van behind them. They then proceeded to pay for the young couple’s lunch that followed them in line.

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” –Colossians 3:12

That couple showed true compassion, kindness, and humility by making the day of the recipients of their gift. I have no idea if their purpose to show God’s love with the couple behind them through a random act of kindness, or just simply make the world a better place by paying forward that kindness to someone else. Regardless, this couple can teach us something about what the wardrobe of our character should look like.

The fact of the matter is, Christ loved us enough to sacrifice his life for our sins. After accepting his gift of salvation, our responsibility is to please him by “clothing ourselves” with the traits that encompass his character (compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience). If we go “all in” to making those traits the definition of our lives, they will compel us to constantly search for ways to serve those who surround us every day.

Letting those traits define our lives might not be in the form of buying someone else’s lunch at McDonald’s, but the opportunities to put them into practice are endless. Strive to “clothe yourself” with the same character as Jesus.

McQuestion 2: How will you let compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience be present in your life?

Stay tuned for a personal account of the “Great Frozen Strawberry Lemonade Incident of 2011.”

Have it yo way, but don't get crazy!

Kaleo: to be called. The call that gave a direction to my summer was literally a real phone call. Ok, so Jesus didn’t call me up on my Droid, but I did get a call from a StuMo staff member informing me that I had been accepted into a summer project entitled “Kaleo.” Here is a basic outline of what my summer looks like:

-Live with three fabulous ladies (Bethany, Alyson, and Tiffany) in StayBridge Suites in Gulf Shores, AL until July 31st.

-Devote strategic time each week to Bible study, prayer, ministry, and fellowship with the more than 150 K-State and KU students.

-Find a job and work Monday-Friday for approximately 40 hours/week. I chose to fulfill my childhood fantasy of working at McDonald’s.

So I know what you’re thinking. “Seriously Sara? Are you really spending your entire summer as an employee of McDonald’s saying the phrase ‘Do you want fries with that’ over and over, offering the chance to Super Size your meal that single-handily took care of your daily calorie count, and earning minimum wage? Yes, yes in fact, I am. Get excited, because during the next 7 weeks I will be sharing my wisdom earned from Mickey D’s life + Christ.

STOP! Before you read any more of my blog, you must watch this Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZkdcYlOn5M Do it. Right now.

“Have it yo way… But don’t get crazy:” not my general greeting as a McDonald’s Crew Member. However, during my first few days of work as the “order taker,” and “cashier” (multi-tasking at it’s finest) of the Gulf Shores McDonalds, Bon Qui Qui and I have a few things in common.

First of all, our job descriptions are very similar. Let me explain. I listen (very very closely, because most people ride the struggle bus when it comes to articulating their words), and take orders with my fancy red headset. After I say the magic words of “pull around to the first window,” I rob them of their money in exchange for an almost lethal amount of fat, carbs, grease, and the other wonderful food groups. Simple right? WRONG!

I am a smart girl. I managed a 4.0 GPA in high school, was a member of every organization possible, found success in many different areas of life, but nothing could prepare me for the challenge of Mickey D’s. Nothing will teach you patience, multi-tasking, and the importance of accuracy and precision like this place. And of course we all know that these things cannot develop without a little pressure right? Between counting an ungodly amount of change, finding those annoying little details that people have to get right on their cheeseburger, and constantly being pushed to work as quickly as possible, at the end of the day, I should pretty much be dead. With no hope of ever returning to the land of the living.

When it comes to glamorous jobs, McDonald’s is probably literally one of the last ones on all of our lists. I won’t lie, despite my excitement over living out my childlike dream world, I still secretly thought that this job might not be the greatest thing ever. But then I realized how blessed I am to have this opportunity. Just like Bon Qui Qui, I am paid to communicate with people every day. My customers are:

People who don’t know if they want a large diet coke or large sweet tea. People that literally vary from a family barely scraping around enough pennies to pay for their food, and wealthy businessmen driving a Porsche wearing a golf polo and talking on their Bluetooth. People who have families, who are single, who are lost, who are unloved, who just got a big break, who are facing new chapters in their lives.

There is never a moment during the day that at least one customer is not either ordering or parked at the window of my drive thru, and the awesome thing is, they are all so incredibly unique. And those are just the individuals on the other side of the window.

I am surrounded by several fellow “Kaleo-ans,” but we are also able to invest our lives in many full-time McDonald’s employees. So they may not be much like the group of friends that I live life with in Kansas. Some of them are struggling with family issues, personal issues, or maybe just having a tough break in their lives. They’re living a different life than I am, but that doesn’t mean that I cannot find a way to relate my life to theirs.

There is my job description, but that isn’t all I focus on from 8-4 every day. So here we have it, my purpose for the summer:

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gifts he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” -1 Peter 4:8-10

Love: how I will make that bridge with the people I am surrounded with. Patience with a demanding customer can only be found by love. Compassion for a co-worker’s struggles can only be found in love. And this deep love that Peter is talking about can only be achieved through a relationship with Christ.

Hospitality: so McDonald’s can be easy to grumble about. However, if I truly apply the first point of love, the grumbles will be much easier to remove from the drive-thru window. Even after I turn the speaker off. (yes, order takers do make sarcastic comments occasionally)

Gifts: who would have thought that me being approachable and my ease with conversations would help me as a McDonald’s employee. Thanks to years of perfecting my tone, etiquette, etc, it is easy for me to add that extra something over the speaker or at the window that might possibly make someone’s day brighter.

Why do I want to take full advantage of my totally awesome summer job? Why do I spend so much time and energy thinking through what my attitude looks like and the specific ways to apply my gifts in something like this? My thought is simple: I want others to see “God’s grace” in every action and conversation that I have as a Crew Member. I want the opportunity to share the dramatic way that Christ has changed my life and watch Him transform others around me.

Whether we are working at McDonald’s, spending time on the family farm, or just hanging out for the summer, keep in mind that with the right recipe, we can make any situation purposeful if we approach it the right way. You never know how much a BigMac order can transform someone else’s life.

(Side note… At the end of my blogs, I want to leave you with one big McQuestion. Take a moment to ponder over that relation to your life.)

McQuestion 1: How will you make the most of your summer surroundings to let others see your life purpose?

It is only day two at Mickey D’s, but don’t worry, there are many stories yet to come regarding my progress. Maybe eventually I will even be able to call in the “saaaaacurity, saaacurity!” Who knows!