Humanity is made up of this complex web of relationships and impressions. You pass people on campus, around town, and even on the road that will never know anything about you. All they know is that short glance and that is their first impression. But you also have people in your life that will forever see you based on their first impressions of you. But they will never know what truly makes you unique and irreplaceable.

They don’t know the way that you uncontrollably giggle around certain people, the way that you get so excited before a trip or a holiday, the way that you are vulnerable and honest with the people closest to you, or even your previous accomplishments and accolades that showcase just a snippet of your talents. All they see is that recurring face and the personality that they have set up for you in their head.

But you aren’t just a face or a name. You are a person. You are passionate, determined, driven, loving, and able. This doesn’t change based on how they see you.

I’ve met and spent hours with people who tried to fit me into this box of their impressions. They see me as someone who is shy, weak, and incompetent. They have nothing to back this up, and there is nothing I can do to change this.

But for a long time, I thought I could change the way that they saw me. I felt like I had to prove myself to them, but I fell under this weight of self-conscious actions and behaviors that made me less like myself. Just because they don’t see me as the excited, bubbly, ambitious, and yet sensitive person that I am, then that doesn’t mean that I am not all of those things.

I am not what they say I am. You are not what people say you are. Your personality is wrapped up in something so unique and complex and they haven’t seen that. You and I need to stop worrying about their impressions and their degrading comments.

One day I decided I wasn’t going to spend any more time letting them tell me who I was. When I did this I gave them the liberty to gossip and continue to judge me based on someone that I am not. But there is peace in this freedom. And through this little bit of freedom from negativity and opinions, I got the slightest glimpse of freedom in Jesus.

There is peace in knowing that Jesus is enough for us (see my previous article “Do Demographics Define Our Identity?”). We don’t have to worry about how other people see us because the only thing that matters is how Jesus sees us as His beloved children. John 8:36 tell us, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

We are free, free indeed in Jesus Christ. So you are freed from the chains of feeling uneasy and incompetent around other people because of their opinions of you here on earth. Jesus sets you free from those impressions, because to Him, you don’t have to do anything to receive His favor, or to keep His love. This is a message of true freedom and relief.