Being Someone I am Not

I realized something the other day. It is so very easy to be someone you really are not. After a 75 minute conversation with Bank of America on Monday about a fraudulent charge on my supposedly cancelled account, and an ongoing 28 minute conversation with them this morning as I type this, its frustrating to think that someone is posing as me. Well, not really me, but just using my account information to purchase a train ticket in Sweden.

This is not the first time this has happened to me. I actually had a fraud alert put on my credit when I lived in Houston, TX. Someone had gotten a credit card application at my old address, and tried to fill it out. Fortunately, the credit card company caught it before it went through.

Is it really that easy to be someone else? I love those commercials on tv where people who are identity theft victims are talking in the voices of the thief. An old white haired woman talking like a motorcycle gang member has got to make you chuckle. I personally don't own a credit card now. I only owned one when we got married. If I don't have the money for it, I don't need it.

Stealing someone's identity is becoming a more and more common occurrance. Now they have identity theft insurance, to take care of all the charges made on your behalf by someone else. I stop and wonder now, however, have I ever stolen someone's identity? Have I ever tried to be someone who I am not?

Everyday, it seems like I try to be someone else. There's those moments in the car when I put on my shades, turn on my music, and I turn into a different person. Maybe I'll walk into a store, and I'll push my chest out and shoulders back, and walk with a different kind of swagger than I usually do.

Then there are the times when I try to be the Christian that I so often times am not. I'll watch something on television or a movie that I probably shouldn't watch, and I'll go into work the next day a minister. There are times when I let my anger get the best of me before class on Wednesday night, and teach everyone like nothing ever happened. Why is it so hard for us to just be the Christian that we claim to be?

Fortunately God loves us unconditionally, and sees through all the masks and different identities we try to assume. God loves us for who we are when we came to Him, broken and pushed down, tattered and torn, scarred from all the battle wounds in the fight of life.

Thank you Father, for always loving us, and for never ever changing, and for never trying to be someone you are not.