🙌It's the Friday Call to Worship!🙌

I have a birthmark on my left ankle that looks like an oversized freckle. My mom taught me the special mark made me "me". When I was a little girl, a store employee tried to help me when I wandered away from my mom in a Texas-sized Walmart. I knew I wasn't supposed to talk to strangers and my birthmark showed who I was. So I sealed my lips tightly together and fervently pointed to the dark brown spot on my ankle. Believe it or not, the employee couldn't help me. I was still lost, struggling to prove who I was. I was found when my mom came and said I belonged to her.

We all have marks that try to inform us (or others) who we are - whether we're born with them or acquire them along the way. They might be physical, mental, or emotional... some are more like open wounds than freckles. Those marks don't make you 'you", nor do they get you found.

The mark that tells who you really are can be found in nail scarred hands if you let Jesus be your Lord. YOU ARE REDEEMED. The price has been paid. No mark can undo what's been done.

The lyrics of today's worship song made me think of that lost little girl in Walmart and those who feel lost in your own lives right now. Rather than pointing to what has marked you, sing about Whose you. He says, "I AM", so we sing, "YOU ARE."

"Fear is not my future. You are.

Sickness is not my story. You are.

Heartbreak's not my home. You are.

Death is not the end. Jesus, You are."

Fear is Not My Future by Brandon Lake