I Am Not My Own

Shane & Shane's “I Am Not My Own” is a worship song about identity and belonging. The first verse says the one who made the heavens made the singer's heart and soul, and that before he drew a breath he was loved and known. He calls himself God's creation and the Maker's masterpiece.

The second verse takes up the idea of the body as a temple of the living God, a house bought with his blood, and asks that the singer bear his image without profaning the holiness held in an earthly frame. The chorus is the title, I belong to the Lord. A later verse says that the measure of his worth is God's love alone, and that God declares his standing and his state, so he will know himself by the name God gave. In the last verse his heart is free, and he asks the Maker to make what he will of him, because nothing is broken that God cannot repair. He leaves his life in God's loving care. The lyrics build a clear argument: if you were made and redeemed, your worth is not for you to decide. That answers the constant pressure to prove yourself, and the plain melody keeps attention on the words. It fits a quiet service, a baptism or a time of confession.

The body as temple and the price paid is 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Being fearfully and wonderfully made is Psalm 139:13-14, and being his workmanship is Ephesians 2:10.