"I had other issues too, I realized. I was worried about my reputation because of all the inaccurate things being said about me. After all, I'd worked hard to gain the good reputation I had, and now it was being questioned and maligned.
I was afraid that people I respected were going to think badly of me. I'd come to believe my identity was directly tied to what I could achieve, to who I could become, and to how well people thought of me. It was slavery.
Colossians 1:12 opened my eyes: "The Father... has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light."
Tullian, you're one of the saints in light. You've been united to him; you'll always have his name, his presence, his personality, his reputation overshadowing and filling all that you are in your inmost being. Because Jesus was someone, you're free to be no one.
...It was freeing to finally realize that, because of Christ's work for me, I didn't have anything to prove or any reputation to protect."
- Pastor Tullian Tchividjian in Jesus + Nothing = Everything
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