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The Identity Effect with Contributing Author Toni Campbell

Many of us struggle to know who we are and whose we are. So I’m sure you’ll appreciate, and perhaps even identify with, the stories of triumph over trials that threaten our identity. Here’s a sneak peek into my story…

Matthew 10:39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

Loss isn’t something we strive for. No one wakes up thinking, “Lord, I’d like to experience loss today through death, divorce, illness, or maybe just some unemployment.” You’d be called crazy if you did. Self-preservation says avoid loss at all costs. It hurts to lose!

Dictionary.com defines loss as “Detriment, disadvantage, or deprivation from failure to keep, have, or get.” Yeah, sign me up for some of that … or not. Definitely not. Yet, I’ve discovered that while I don’t long for loss, God brings
life out of it. He does it in incomprehensible ways. Ways I couldn’t see when I was in the midst of pain. Ways that somehow add rather than subtract. Multiply rather than divide.

I’ve experienced quite a bit of loss. My parents divorced when I was 17. I had an abortion at 18. My mom died when I was 25. The company where I had worked most of my adult life closed when I was 41. I was divorced at 49. I was forced to sell my home of 28 years when I was 53. I had cancer at 56…and again at 57.

But this is not a story of detriment, disadvantage or deprivation. It is a story of determination, discovery, and even delight. It is what happens when one’s identity goes from being lost in the midst of life to being found in the Giver of life.