Identity and turning the other cheek...

Rosie (Princessa Roslinda Montoya in hiding): I am not a fool, I will not let her make me something that I am not. I will turn the other cheek, it is what princesses do.~Princess Protection Program by Disney

Sara Crewe: I am a princess. All girls are. Even if they live in tiny old attics. Even if they dress in rags, even if they aren't pretty, or smart, or young. They're still princesses. All of us. Didn't your father ever tell you that? Didn't he? ~ A little Princess, the movie.

I grew up "Christian," and what I mean by the quotes is that I grew up being told what I should and shouldn't do. This frustrated my young self immensely. "You have to serve to lead, the last will be first, lose your life to find it, turn the other cheek, bless those who curse you, love your enemies," these were great aspirations to be sure, but I couldn't reconcile them with who I knew at the time that I was. Everything in me wanted to hate those who hated me, serve myself first, strike the cheek that struck mine. I didn't understand why these were things that were wrong, and nobody cared enough to explain it.

I love Disney movies, specifically anything about princesses and so even though I'm significantly older than a pre-teen, I watched Princess Protection Program with enthusiasm and was not disappointed. At this point you're probably laughing at me, but I'm about to explain why this Disney movie has more to do with God than you know. In it, Princess Rosalinda inherits her father's crown but is overthrown and attacked by a sadistic dictator who than holds her mother hostage. To keep the princess safe she is spirited off to live in Louisianna and her name becomes Rosie Gonzales. But Rosie shows us something significant about who we are, about our Identity.

That's exactly what it boils down to isn't it? Identity, and what we believe about who we are. If God is King, and we're his children that makes us Prince's and Princesses. That makes us royalty, but royalty goes far beyond being beautiful or crowns. Somewhere deep inside we know we were created for more than this. It's why men ache to be brave and women pine to be beautiful. It's the deepest part of us remembering who we were created to be. If we could remember daily who we are, if we believed that we were God's chosen ones, His "favorite" as Pastor Zach Neese of Gateway church says, than wouldn't we live life a bit differently.

Jesus knew who He was when He said to turn the other cheek. He knew he'd be spit on, beaten, bloodied, hung on a cross, made fun of, mocked, and betrayed. But He also knew that none of this could discount who He was and is. That's the reason that He turned the other cheek, and it's why we must as well. People will hurt you, betray you, wound you, and mock you, but no one on this planet can take away who you are and what who you were created to be.

Identity. It all comes back to that.