Defining Role

 Devotion for the Week...

When Betty White passed away on New Year's Eve, it was a bit of a shock to everyone. She may have been 99, but somehow it still felt like she would outlive us all. Reading about her life was fascinating; she had been a part of so many projects over the years! She seemed so down to earth and like she didn't take herself too seriously. The famous Snickers commercial is the perfect example of that!

Even with all the other things she did, she will always be best known for playing Rose Nylund on Golden Girls. She brought sweet, somewhat dim Rose to life so perfectly that everyone loved her and her St. Olaf stories. 

We all play different roles in life. Some we're proud of, others not so much. Some last only a brief time, others are decades-long. And some, like Rose Nylund, are what we become known for. Sure, most of us probably won't become world famous like Rose, but those in our circles know the role we played. This is great if we're known as the parent who was always willing to help drive members of the team to games or as the friend who was always there to offer support. It's less great if we're known for being the one who drank too much or who had an affair.

It can be hard to escape if the defining role of our life is a negative one. It can be hard to even see ourselves as anything good when the negative role seems to far outweigh whatever good we have done. It doesn't have to be others defining us by negative role, either; sometimes we define ourselves that way. We can be stuck defining ourselves by our failures long after others have changed their view of us. This is why it's so good to know that "there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).

As soon as we accept Jesus as Savior, we step into a new role as Christians. And not only is it a new role, it's a whole new identity. Peter wrote, "you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light" (1 Peter 2:9). That becomes our defining role, overwriting everything that came before it. Isn't that wonderful?

Whatever negative thing we have seen as the defining role of our lives, God tells us to change that title. Instead of 'selfish' we can write God's very own possession. Instead of 'failure', we can write royal priest. Instead of 'worthless' we can write holy nation.

Over all of it, every negative name we have ever called ourselves, we are to write chosen. That is the defining role of our lives, as given to us by God Himself.

In a similar vein, I love Cory Asbury's song, The Father's House, especially for the line "Failure won't define me, cause that's what my Father does."