The Five Rights: Trading the Mask for an Identity in Christ.
There are seasons in life when you begin to realize that what you thought was strength was actually performance. You were functioning, building, leading, achieving, serving, and doing it all well. From the outside, nothing appeared misaligned. You loved God. You prayed. You showed up. You carried responsibility. And yet beneath all of it, there was a quiet exhaustion you couldn’t quite name.
That exhaustion is what led to this book.
The Five Rights was not written from a place of collapse or crisis. It was written from awakening. It came from the slow realization that it is possible to serve God faithfully while still subtly striving for identity. It is possible to love Him deeply and yet unknowingly wear a mask, not one of rebellion, but one of protection, performance, or people-pleasing. And over time, even holy performance becomes heavy.
The Lord began to show me that much of our frustration in life does not come from disobedience as much as it comes from misalignment. We may be saying the right things, but at the wrong time. Carrying weight we were never assigned. Stepping into spaces we were not graced for. Or shrinking back from places we were called to stand. When alignment is off, even good intentions feel burdensome.
Out of prayer, surrender, and deep internal wrestling came what I now call the Five Rights: Right Identity, Right Word, Right Measure, Right Time, and Right Place. These are not strategies for success. They are anchors for alignment. When identity is right, striving quiets. When timing is right, anxiety lessens. When measure is right, comparison loses its grip. When place is right, grace meets you there.
At its core, this book is about identity, but not identity as the world defines it. It is not about self-construction, branding, personality types, or reinvention. It is about returning to the identity already given in Christ. It is about laying down the version of yourself you built to survive and receiving the one God formed before the foundations of the world.
There was a sobering moment in my own walk when I realized that you can lead while still performing. You can preach truth and still be hiding. You can appear confident and yet be driven by the quiet fear of being unseen or misunderstood. The mask is not always obvious. Sometimes it looks like excellence. Sometimes it looks like humility. Sometimes it looks like strength. But the Lord does not anoint masks; He anoints truth. And truth requires surrender.
The Five Rights is an invitation to that surrender. It is for the woman or man who feels called but unclear, accomplished yet inwardly weary, faithful yet sensing that something deeper is being required. It is for those who have outgrown performance but are still learning how to live unmasked. The pages hold reflection, Scripture, personal testimony, and practical discernment, not to overwhelm you with more to do, but to guide you back into alignment with who God says you are.
Alignment changes everything. When you stop trying to manufacture identity and begin to receive it, obedience becomes lighter. Peace becomes steadier. Clarity sharpens. The noise of comparison fades. You begin to move not from pressure, but from permission.
This book is my offering in that direction. It is the fruit of years of striving, surrendering, wrestling, and yielding. It is an altar laid in pages. The mask is coming off, not dramatically, not performatively, but honestly. And what remains is who Christ has always called you to be.
The Five Rights: Trading the Mask for an Identity in Christ launches April 5, 2026. I cannot wait to share this journey with you. Subscribe to join my waiting list.
Chioma Okechukwu