You Are Not Your Reputation — Purity 1955
— By M.T. Clark — 05/05/2026 — Purity 1955 Audio Podcast
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Today’s photo of the Poesten Kill Creek along the trail near the Barberville Falls Preserve comes to us from yours truly, as I captured this peaceful woodland scene during a hike with my wife TammyLyn on May 4th, 2024.
Well, it’s Tuesday, and I share this quiet creekside scene as a reminder that not every good day comes with perfect weather. The day TammyLyn and I hiked this trail, the sun came and went — poking through the clouds in waves, causing the temperatures to rise and fall unpredictably. But what I remember most is not the weather. I remember the steady progress we made, the seclusion of the forest, and the simple joy of good company on the path. Sometimes the Lord gives us not a perfect day, but a good one — and that is more than enough. I am grateful for every step of that hike, and for the woman God gave me to walk through life with.
I hope your Tuesday finds you making steady progress, wherever the path takes you today.
We’ve been walking through a series called “Who You Are in Christ,” and so far we’ve settled on five truths. We have seen that:
- You are not what you did.
- You are not what was done to you.
- You are not what you feel.
- You are not alone.
- And you are not your circumstances.
Today I want to address a sixth lie — one that has kept more people out of the freedom God has for them than perhaps any other.
Some of us have been defined — in our own minds and in the minds of others — by our reputations. By the things we did before we came to Christ, or even the things we did after. By the way people remember us. By the labels that were assigned to us — sometimes by others, sometimes by ourselves — that have followed us like a shadow ever since.
Maybe you were known as the addict. The one who couldn’t be trusted. The one who walked away from their family. The one who made a public mess of their life. Maybe your reputation preceded you into every room, every relationship, every new beginning — and no matter how far you walked away from who you used to be, you could never quite escape what people remembered about you.
But God wants you to know: You are not your reputation.
I understand this personally. Before I came to a genuine, surrendered faith in Christ, I lived in ways I am not proud of. And even after coming to faith, I have made mistakes that left marks — on relationships, on my testimony, on the way some people see me.
I was the big “sinner saved by grace” after all, and I wish I could say that I left my sin behind the moment I put my faith in Jesus — but that would be untrue. The truth is that I had a lot of growing up to do in my understanding of God and His ways. The truth is that I had some real sin problems, and I didn’t even realize that I could be free of them.
When I first tried to live by faith, I felt like Peter in Luke 5, falling at Jesus’ knees and saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” I identified myself with my past and sinful failures more than I did as a “holy one” or a saint — someone who, through faith in Jesus Christ, has been set apart by God for His purposes.
That moment of honest self-assessment before a holy God, when you see the truth of your sin, is one of the most humbling places a person can stand. In light of Jesus’ perfection, we see our sin clearly and assume that anyone truly holy would reject us and walk away.
But Jesus doesn’t do that. He did not reject Peter. Instead, Jesus put Peter at ease and invited him into his God-given purpose by saying, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.”
Jesus did not agree with Peter’s self-assessment and walk away. He did not say, “You’re right — I’ve heard about you. I can’t associate with you.” He looked at this rough and impulsive fisherman, and not only accepted him for who he was — He welcomed him to become the person God made him to be. And Peter — the same Peter who would later deny Christ three times in front of witnesses — became the rock on which Christ built His church. His reputation among men did not determine his destiny in God.
That is the grace of the Gospel. God uses the disqualified and the sinful to become more than they ever were. He does not define you by the worst version of yourself that other people remember. He calls and compels you to become the person you always wanted to be, but were afraid you could never be.
Proverbs 22:1 tells us that a good name is more desirable than great riches. And that is true — but what happens when your name has been damaged?
What happens when your reputation is working against you?
The good news is that God is in the business of restoring names. He changed Abram to Abraham. He changed Jacob — the deceiver — to Israel. He changed Simon the impulsive fisherman to Peter, the rock. A name — an identity — can be redeemed and renewed by the hand of God.
Here’s what I’ve learned from walking with people in freedom ministry: the reputation wound runs deep because it lives in community.
You can repent privately and move forward in your own heart, but you still have to walk back into a world where people remember what you were. That gap — between who God says you are now and who people remember you as — can be one of the most painful places a believer has to live.
I often encourage coaching clients to adopt a policy of total transparency in order to be free from the secrets and sins of the past — but I do so with the warning that while people may appreciate your confession, they may also judge you because of it.
But your identity is not voted on by the people who knew you at your worst. It is declared by the God who knew you before you were born, knew every mistake you would ever make, and chose you anyway.
Ephesians 1:4 tells us that He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world — before your reputation existed, before you had done anything good or bad, He already knew you and called you His own.
You are not your reputation.
You are who God says you are — chosen, redeemed, called, and equipped for a purpose that your past cannot cancel.
Let the Lord keep rebuilding your name, one faithful day at a time. If you want to be known as a real Christian — a disciple of Jesus Christ — you will have to be faithful to walk in His ways.
So keep showing up. Keep walking with Him. Keep being who He is making you to be — and trust that the God who restored Peter can restore you, too.
Keep on walking and talking with God.
— M.T.
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“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”
Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
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