Identify; Galations: Life in the Spirit - Jessica Mumley

Who is this face in the mirror?
These days I wonder
as the ground shifts
and things I thought
were stable
lie in ruins.

My shadow stretches
and flexes,
both wider
and more insubstantial
than ever.

Shaken,
I look for something stable
to ground me.

Peter had an earthquake moment
when he stopped celebrating
with non-Jews,
putting up obstacles
for many to trip over.

Paul's response?
This is so old school!
Put off the old 
measuring sticks
and don't ever pick 
them up again.
All that matters now
is that Christ died
and rose for each
one of us.
That's it.
Not rituals,
secret handshakes
or adherence to 
a complex set of rules.
If we could earn it
by effort
we wouldn't need Christ
and His death 
would be useless.

Remove the roles
we layer on 
to hide our nakedness.
Lay them down,
though we shiver
and quake
or we will never know
the skin-to-skin
intimacy
and our absolute
dependence
on Him.

I can list my qualifications,
all I've achieved
and overcome,
all I've held onto
and used to prop me up,
but all of this
is worse than useless,
no more than dung
on the bottom of my feet
compared to
knowing Christ.

I lay down my right
to hold onto anything stable
except my identity
in Christ.
Then, and only then,
can I really live
in a new dimension,
multi-layered
and intensely richer -
watch it shimmer
as it filters through
my spread 
fingers.

Gal. 2:11-13;19-21; Matt. 10:39; Phil. 3:4-5