![\"\"](\"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/realid.jpg\")
<\/a>With my license about to expire, my goal was to renew it with a REAL ID. For those of you not familiar, this is a federally compliant version of your old driver\u2019s license needed\u00a0after Sept 30, 2020\u00a0to get on an airplane or to visit certain governmental buildings. There are strict federal laws governing each state: Anyone requesting a REAL ID needs to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt who they really are.<\/p>\nMy problem was\u00a0I let\u00a0my passport\u00a0expire. I read up on the items needed instead. One of them was a birth certificate. I searched my house for weeks trying to find a document I wasn\u2019t even certain I had. Finally, I gave up and\u00a0obtained a new one from the\u00a0county where I was born.<\/p>\n
As women, we also have to prove\u00a0our name change for every driver\u2019s license. So I packed up my marriage license, my birth certificate, social security card and proof of my address before heading out to the\u00a0DMV. Yet, I was still rejected because I brought\u00a0my\u00a0marriage license not a\u00a0certified\u00a0<\/em>copy of my marriage certificate. Never mind this was the very\u00a0document I\u00a0used years ago to change my driver\u2019s license, my passport, my social security card, all my bank accounts \u2013 you get the idea. The DMV’s logic seemed circular to me, but I did all that in a pre-911 world when I guess the\u00a0government\u00a0was more lax about my identity.<\/p>\n I was upset leaving the DMV for not even thinking about\u00a0obtaining a state issued copy of\u00a0my marriage\u00a0certificate. I didn\u2019t think the bar would be so high to prove I am me. Despite this huge frustration, I also was thankful God knows who I am, he has welcomed me into his family and no matter how many names I have, he has only one for me: daughter.<\/p>\n Yes, I was in the midst of an identity crisis of biblical proportions, but also felt God giving me a lesson about who he is and who I was called to be \u2013 his! Scripture clearly conveys God\u2019s heart for the poor, the oppressed, the orphaned and yes, the rejected. He treasures those of us who have been rejected and made a way to adopt us into the family of God. He never wants us thinking we are left out any longer. Daughters, heirs of God, don\u2019t whine and beg; they pray and believe in God\u2019s love, power and affection.<\/p>\n My identity is firmly established in the finished work of Christ on the cross. His overwhelming victory gives me a place at his table of grace. 1 Peter 2:9 remind us: But you are a chosen people,\u00a0a royal priesthood,\u00a0a holy nation,\u00a0God\u2019s special possession,\u00a0that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.<\/em> (NIV)<\/p>\n Approaching the clerk at the DMV, I was filled with anxiousness and fear of rejection. But when I approach the throne of God\u2019s grace, I am assured of God\u2019s welcome and loving embrace. I will always be his forever, no matter what. That thought leaves me speechless, but in a totally different way than I was at the DMV. My wordless response there was of anger\u00a0and disappointment\u00a0that I had failed to prove who I was. Accepting my identity in Christ leaves me speechless in\u00a0humble, yet\u00a0awe-inspiring gratitude.<\/p>\n As an heir of Christ, I have nothing to prove \u2013 not even who I am \u2013 and all of eternity to live\u00a0out that identity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It wasn\u2019t the \u201cwho am I\u201d identity crisis occupying my life for the last month. I\u2019m not sitting around contemplating where I fit in this world. No, I was truly having trouble\u00a0actually\u00a0proving who I was. With my license about to expire, my goal was to renew it with a REAL ID. For those of you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[6,45,13,14,48,18,47,23,26],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1571"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1573,"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions\/1573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}