Reader Reviews of Grappling With Your Identity

Thought Provoking – Life Changing
“Do I delight in whom I am?” This opening question pulled me into Lynne’s book on identity. Through light humor, insightful analogies, biblical foundations, and clear explanations, Lynne helps the reader see herself/himself through God’s eyes. Through Christ we live in freedom, letting our lives impact others. A great book to read slowly, giving time to ponder each truth. (by Kathryn Means)

Freeing
There were so many “aha” moments in this book for me. It is the type of book that you need to set down and think about from time to time. I found it very liberating and solidly based on biblical texts. It would be a great read for anyone struggling with identity issues, which is just about everybody, right? (by J. Soderberg)

Life Changing
The first time I read this book I was thrilled beyond belief to finally understand who I am in Christ. I felt clean and freed from self-absorption to love those around me. I’ve now read this book seven times. Each time I gain new insights and find new freedom to live life as God intended. I’ve shared this book with many others and they too have found the Biblical truths, presented so clearly, to be life-changing. (by Karen Miller)

Identity
I am a pastor working primarily with drug addicts and alcoholics, most of whom have a highly distorted concept of their own identity. They’ve been told that they’re losers, failures, and rejects–that they’ll never amount to anything–and sadly, more often than not, this view eventually becomes a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. They become the people they believe themselves to be.

In my work with addicts and alcoholics, Lynne’s book, Grappling with Your Identity, has been tremendously helpful. It provides a doorway into a new understanding of identity–an understanding based on God’s view us in Christ. As Lynne points out, our identity is not defined by our possessions, our activities, or by what others say about us. Rather, our true identity comes from our Creator. God is the One who defines us, and when we see ourselves through his eyes–see ourselves as beloved children in whom our heavenly Father delights–it will lead to a revolutionary new way of living.

Lynne’s book is particularly good at both deconstructing and reconstructing. It deconstructs false views of identity–tears apart the lies and distortions that have often plagued us our entire lives–and it reconstructs a new view that is truly biblical. The book is also very readable and can serve as a wonderful basis for discussion. Many of the people I work with have had ‘break through’ moments in talking about the issues Lynne brings up. Grappling with Your Identity is definitely on my 5 Star list! (by a burnham)

Grappling with Your Identity
It’s one of the best books I have ever read. Very inspirational! It helps me free of all guilt, shame and any sense of failure. It’s the power of gospel. (by Tracy)

A Breath of Fresh Air
This book is such a breath of fresh air. It arrives on a current landscape filled with the latest trends. The power of the gospel comes through in Lynne’s writing. She is open, honest and without pretense (“We don’t have the ability to pull off more than superficial behavioral change” page 128). The reader is free to absorb truth without feeling compelled to improve. There’s no “how to”, no trendy next steps, no recipes for improvement, no disciplines, no practice, just the power of the simple gospel truth regarding the origin of our identity. It’s a book worth re-reading often so one can appreciate the magnitude of our transformation in Christ and be rid of “morbid introspection that reveals who we were but not who we are” page 174. (by Sheila Robinson)

A Refreshing Perspective
In a time when culture dictates that a person’s worth is based on performance, this book re-establishes the fundamental truth that our worth is founded in Christ’s love for us and not what we do, but what He has done for us and who He has made us to be. The focus point has changed and we are freed up to be what God has intended us to be. (by Terry Robinson)

Delightful and Deep
Lynne Fox, in her book, Grappling with Your Identity, brings much needed illumination to a critically important but often poorly understood issue within the Christian community – our identity in Christ and how understanding our new identity impacts the degree to which we are able to enjoy an astonishing new freedom in our lives.

One highlight of her book explores how we put an extraordinary amount of time and effort into pursuing what she calls [“pseudoworth” – gaining our identity from] things like our possessions (material and relational), our activities (work, parenting, and our other roles), and what other people think of us. She urges us instead to “…stop our efforts to get life and glory. There’s no need to get what’s already been given. We are free to rest, relax, and relish the life and glory that’s already there.” (p. 175) We can rest in the God-given identity He has given us in Christ, if we truly understand what that is.

Thankfully, Lynne clearly explains in her book the details of this true God-given identity by taking us back to the story of Genesis, leading us through how God created us in His image, the distortion of that image told from the story of Adam and Eve, the effect of the Fall, our restoration and redemption through Christ, and how all of this relates to our identity in Christ. (by Havanagirl)

Freedom in Christ
I think that everybody deals with questions about identity. As a professional in the silicon valley, I’m tempted to equate my self-identity with work, accomplishments and leisure. This book was an encouragement to me to stop flailing away to achieve identity and just believe that God created me perfectly.

This is not a self-help book, it’s a book that’s firmly rooted in scripture that points us towards God. Lynne directs the reader to the Bible to figure out who we are instead of figuring it out ourselves by our own reason. All the assertions made in the book have Biblical references. Lynne starts with two concepts for our identity (Spirit/wind and breathe) and develops them in the book. By the end of the book you will be saying Spirit/wind and breathe with ease. There are also a lot of great real life examples sprinkled throughout the book that make it easier to read. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.(by djpraise)

We OWN OUR Bodies
A different approach to self esteem/identity issues. The author integrates the teachings of Hebrew and Christian Scriptures on this subject. Demonstrates the relationship between the two Scriptures on this universal struggle we all have and how it practically apply to our lives.

The book has an informal tone and expresses deep theological concepts relating to identity in an understandable manner. It also is peppered with light humor relating to the author’s own life experiences.

One of the points of this book is that our identity does not come from what we do, what we own (including OUR OWN bodies), or what people think of us. Now it has a flip side too in that we don’t judge our neighbor’s identity by what they do, what they own, and how other people think of them. This has lots of practical implications in many different fields (e.g. Nursing, medicine, social work, occupational therapy, management, etc).

The other point is that our core identity comes from the living God in the Hebrew-Christian Scripture. Being a practical book also, it illuminates what this identity is and how does one make this identity a reality in day to day living.

Another point in the book is that having this special identity and able to be sure of it will free us from being self absorbed and self-centered and instead it grants us the freedom to be other-centered and God-centered.

Overall, it is a practical book with light humor that applies some of the deep insights of both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures on identity that could potentially be life changing and life giving. (by Daniel Wu)