A friend of mine polled a group of people, asking, "What is the most difficult issue facing teens today?" How would you answer this question? Do drugs come to mind? What about alcohol? Sex? Cutting? Suicide? Body image?
What if these issues were only the surface and at the heart lied something deeper? What if the deeper issue was a search for identity? And what if it wasn't an issue that only teens were facing?
I believe that we spend our entire lives searching for our identity, whether or not we are aware of it. We look for it in popularity, achievement, wealth, status, beauty, image, and intelligence. Psychologists say teenagers struggle with identity, because it is most pronounced in them in destructive means. But what if our adult lust for achievement or status is just as detrimental, only culturally acceptable?
As Christians, we know that our identity is already defined, but we still search. Our culture tells us to search. Our sin nature tells us to search. And somehow we buy the lie that all of this...stuff...is more pleasurable than God.
I am fascinated by all of the places in Scripture where God changes someone's name. It happened when Abram became Abraham, Jacob became Israel, and Simon became Peter. When God changes someone's name, it is more than an issue of semantics. It is an issue of identity. God sees who He wants a person to become for His glory, and He changes their identity. It's as if He is telling them to stop searching, or perhaps to change the direction of their search. Their identity has been found!
Where does that leave you and me? In Revelation 2:17, Jesus says, "To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it." I imagine Jesus handing me a stone with my name--my identity--written on it. And when I see it, I will have an "Aha!" moment. At that moment, everything in my life will make sense. My questions will be answered. My search will be over. I will discover that my identity has been there all along, held securely in the palm of Christ's hand. I will remember the times that God gave me the strength to reject the name that the world offered me on the stones of success and prosperity and external value. And as I look back up from my stone--my identity--into the eyes of Jesus Christ, I will exclaim, "It was all worth it!"
2 comments:
To answer one of your questions, no i don't have a blog. But here is something i recently wrote that is on the same topic as your blog today. My aplogies for the extra spaces everywhere during the cut & paste:
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The answer to how to live life free of worry, with purpose and
unafraid lies in identifying our identity. Who are we? Why are we are?
What is our purpose? What is most meaningful? Who loves me? What
happens when I die? These and many more questions need to be
contemplated and answered if we want to have peace of mind and peace
in our hearts.
Proverbs 22:1 tells us the importance of a good name. Having favor
with man is not all that makes up a "good name". In fact having a good
name as the Bible defines it will only produce favor with man as a
byproduct, and that only sometimes! The foundation of having a good
name as a Christian is understanding your identity. This seems like a
simple concept but it is not. Let's look at how a Christian can screw
up their identity and thereby muddy their good name.
Humans are like sponges; humans, not just children. We see, we
evaluate. We taste, we enjoy. We hear music, we cry. We attend a
funeral, we become depressed. We visit a war memorial, we are filled
with pride and thankfulness. It is just more obvious in children. We
seem them take their first step, or speak their first word, or stay
away from the stove b/c it's hot, and we think, "Wow, they learn
fast!" Everything is new to them and we mark each experience as an
achievement.
But do adults turn from sponges into rocks? No, in fact every day we
live, we absorb more and more information that in turn molds who we
are and who we will become. We break off a relationship and we cry. We
observe cheating in college and we become cynical. We have a heart
attack and thus become a health nut. For better or for worse we allow
our life experiences to define our outlook on life (our perceived
identity). This is simultaneously happening to everyone whether we are
cognizant of it or not.
Jeremiah 1:5 tells us that before we are born, God KNEW us! Ephesians
1:9-11 reveals that God had a plan since the beginning to unite us to
Himself after we had sinned! and John 3:16 summarizes that plan for
us!
The point I am trying to make in a short, half-hazard email is that
our identity is defined by one person and only one person: Jesus. We
are not bakers, businessmen, beauticians, beekeepers and bicyclists.
We are not mothers, brothers, sons, daughters, fathers, uncles or
aunts. We are not "gamers", scholars, partiers, musicians or
administrators. We are God's. We live for God. We breathe for God. We
work for God. We die for God. He is in us all (the Holy Spirit in the
souls of the saints), through us all, for us all and our all in all.
Why is this important? Can't I be a Christian AND an accountant? I'll
tell you why it's important. Jesus is the only ROCK. Everything else,
and I mean EVERYTHING else, is sinking sand. Our bodies grow old. The
stock market crashes. Our cars need maintenance. Sports go in and out
of style. Spouses cheat. Children lie.
Jesus lives. Jesus saves. Jesus creates. Jesus loves. Jesus is "on
call" 24/7/365. He was there in the beginning. He is here with us now.
And He will be there at the end (organizing and controlling the events
in fact!)
There are too many thoughts needed to be expressed here. An apt
summary is: Our identity is with Christ. Why? Jesus IS. Nothing else
can claim that permanent adjective.
Jesus is the fulfillment of every hope, desire and longing in our
lives. He can heal us. He can grant us wisdom. He blesses us with His
peace. He can protect us from spiritual dangers that no
missile/ak47/knife/nuclear bomb could even scratch. He fought AND
defeated the one enemy no one in the history of mankind has: death.
Why is it important that we find our identity in Christ and no one or
nothing else? Two reasons: consistency and reality. Jesus will never
lie to you. Jesus will never fail you. Jesus will never disappoint
you. Jesus will never leave you. Jesus will never hurt you. You were
made by him and for him. Concerning reality, reality does not exist
only in what we can see and touch. Their is a spiritual reality that
goes along with our physical reality. And since the physical reality
is currently tainted by sin and death, it will all one day be wiped
away and a new physical reality will be created from the ongoing
spiritual reality. Since God is the author, apex, leader, decider of
this spiritual reality, we can rightly view our present physical
reality as subordinate to that spiritual reality.
We go from games to food to work to awards to tv to travel to people
to find fulfillment (many times we think we are just seeking a release
from boredom or monotony but it is never that simple) when all we need
to due is come and drink from the Living Waters that has thus far left
no one unsatisfied who dared drink from it.
I thought i would be able to word this better than i have, but i guess
i'm still working out the kinks and i haven't thought it through well
enough. Maybe the simplest "word" i could give someone like myself is
that we must not "obsess" about ANYTHING or ANYONE except Christ. Only
He is worthy and only He is incapable of being "exhausted" by a human
being, regardless of their intellect or talent. So a true Christian, a
true follower of Christ, turns from videogames, turns from work, turns
from money, turns from recognition, turns from music and faces God and
like any proper plant, soaks up the Light and Energy and becomes fully
what they are destined to become. Facing any other direction is an
embracing of death.
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As you can see i ramble. My mind usually gets ahead of my mouth. I'm going to eventually make my thoughts more organized and formal on the topic but right now i just enjoy having this revealed to me. Plus, i'd rather take these thoughts and transfer them into practical everyday steps than to just write more on a topic. Sadly, my knowledge exceeds my actions.
Blessings.
Beautifully stated, even in rough format. I appreciate your rambled thoughts, and concur wholeheartedly as reflected in my blog. In this type of format, I almost prefer the "rough" version. Our thoughts are fresh from what God has revealed and ripe from being in His presence. There is a beauty in that.
I especially resonate with your thoughts that "We are God's. We live for God. We breathe for God. We work for God. We die for God. He is in us all...through us all, for us all and our all in all." I think it takes us a lifetime to learn and act out the implications of the simple truth that life is all about God, and then to rejoice in that revelation!
Thanks for taking the time to cut and paste your writing. May God grant us both the hunger to put into practice that which He has revealed, and the wisdom to know where to begin!
For His Renown,
Jenny
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