God in his grace has chosen to grant us the identity of his Son

I was in this meeting, and one famous probably 80+ years old Agricultural Economist bluntly asked me, “Who are you?”, “What is your educational background?”and “What are you doing?”.

How do you answer such questions? I wanted to answer him “Well, who are you, why are you asking and why do you care?” or “Well, I am an igorot, a  child of God redeemed and justified by Jesus Christ; and I have a 4-yr old, a 4-month old baby, and a husband who prays.”
 

Anyway, I wrote my name in his notebook, replied “I graduated my Bachelor’s degree from Benguet State University, graduated my MS at UP Los Baños, graduated my Ph.D (by research) from a Japanese University;” I worked on a resource economics issue for my research using contingent valuation and choice experiment techniques. Well, you see, he asked me that question a little after his discussion of what they wanted to do and find out for their project, and after his colleague made a rundown of the people they wanted to work with…so and so a graduate of University of Hawaii, so and so  from UP Diliman, so and so from UP Los Baños, so and so from National University of Singapore, so and so who is well published regarding this, so and so who wrote some book, etc. After that, they asked me to discuss the studies I am handling, how am I doing it, my accomplishments, etc...and over lunch, some talks continued  yet always, discussion goes back to how many Ph.D.s, M.S., where these people took their Ph.D.s, etc.

After the meeting, I felt exhausted, drove home, pumped milk for my baby, played with him and nursed him. His smile took my tiredness away big time.

What is my point and why am I relating this story? I guess probably because of the stark reality of the general way people look at things. In this world, you are identified by your educational attainment, where you graduated from, your honors; you are identified for what you have accomplished; you are identified for what you have published; whether you have delivered in your projects, etc.

Such a big contrast with how the gospel identifies people.  Such a big contrast with how Apostle Paul talks about identity.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. — Galatians 3:27
. . . and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places . . . — Ephesians 2:6
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. — Ephesians 2:19

As Bryan Chapel puts it “the above statements by Apostle Paul make no sense if we base our identity on our human abilities and accomplishments. But when we understand that God in his grace has chosen to grant us the identity of His Son, we see how they (the verses) can apply to us.”

The experience reminded me of God’s grace in choosing to grant me the identity of his Son. May God grant me the grace to accomplish enough in my work, the grace to perform well in my research studies in service to the Master , the grace to serve Him in my family as a wife and mother. But more than anything, may God grant me the grace and mercy to live up to the essential identity granted me by the gospel.