Misunderstood

Have you ever felt misunderstood?

When my teenage brother was in the beginning stages of puberty, I remember chuckling to myself when he would get in an argument with my parents and storm off yelling, “You just don’t understand me!” He didn’t realize that he was playing into every cliche of what being a teenager was like.

Even though we may grow out of the teenage years and find more stability in who we are, I think it is easy to revisit this feeling often.

We get attached to identities or reputations that are trivial and ultimately realize that no one truly understands us, and maybe we don’t even really understand ourselves.

We may latch onto positive identities: father, friend, achiever, giver. Or we may find ourselves stuck in negative reputations - the liar, the mistake, the one who can never get it right. But these identities distract us from the most core identity, the only one that will ever satisfy our aching souls: “Child of God.”

Jesus was in the business of redefining identities. He would call people out of their sin and tell them who they really were.

I love the account of Jesus calling Matthew the tax collector to follow Him. In that day and age tax collectors were hated, seen as thieves and betrayers who let greed run their life. Matthew could latch onto that identity, sit in his reputation, and forever misunderstand who God had created him to be. But Jesus had a different plan for him.

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

- Matthew 9:9-13

The religious people during Jesus’ time here on earth didn’t understand why He would associate with those with poor reputations. But He reminded them - those are the exact people whose identities need to be corrected! Jesus meets His children where they’re at and reminds them of who they really are. Not tax collectors, not sinners, but children of God.

I don’t know what identity or reputation plagues you. Maybe it’s one you keep choosing for yourself, believing you must uphold a certain expectation or keep falling back into certain places of shame. Maybe it’s one others put on you. Maybe the expectations of bosses, spouses, or parents continue to make you feel endlessly misunderstood.

Jesus is calling you just as he called Matthew. He came for the broken, He came for the sinner, He came for you. Would you let Him remind you of who you are?

You are His child. Release the other identities. Follow Him.

Cristina Schmitter

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