An Identity Crisis

We're a label society.

We love putting labels on people.  Sometimes we even enjoy putting labels on ourselves.

Homosexual, Emo, Stay-At-Home mom, homeschooler, executive, autistic, handicapped, ADHD, Geek.

These are all labels we take upon ourselves or we let others place upon us. Eventually they become our identities.  We think of ourselves first and foremost by what people see us as.  Our sexuality or job status or our disease defines who we are.  We segregate, promote and celebrate or lament those labels.  It becomes who we are.

But that's not what Jesus intended.

In Galatians 2:15-21, Paul writes to address an issue that came up at the Council of Jerusalem. There a group of Jewish believers taught that new Gentile Christians had to conform to the Jewish way of worship, including circumcision and Kosher laws.

Paul argues that our identity is not in our heritage or religious background.  Our identity is in Christ.  We sacrifice who are with Christ.  He becomes our identity. His dreams, his plans, his purposes and his will become ours.  We are no longer free to label ourselves or to live by someone else's label.  We are identified solely with Jesus Christ.

When Christ becomes your identity, all the other stuff doesn't really matter.  It fades away.  I don't have to conform to what others think I should.  I can be free to be who Christ wants me to be.  It's not about finding acceptance in others, but in living a life pleasing to Jesus.

What is your identity?  Mine is in Christ Jesus.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Devotion to a false god

Image
Last week, at Disney World, I went to retrieve our stroller from the stroller parking section.  As I searched among the hundred or so strollers, I finally found mine and started to move it.  As I pulled, it snagged on a woman's garment.  Panicked, I looked up and saw it was a Muslim women in full Muslin dress.  Her body was completely covered.  Only a slit for her eyes was visible.  I was careful not to yank, and I tried to apologize as the hook of the handle caught part of her garment.  She didn't say a word and we both quietly went on our ways. As I walked away, I felt pity on her.  For one, it's Disney World in June in Florida.  I strode along in shorts and a very thin T-shirt.  Both were soaked in sweat.  I had already consumed two bottles of water and still felt weary.  She was dressed head to toe in heavy garments.  I can't imagine how hot she was pushing a stroller with two kids through a mass of people in humid air and on hot pavement. Secondly, she dres
Read more

Time for an examination

Image
For my seminary class on counseling, I had to read a book about anxiety and worry.  In the book, the author, Archibald Hart, made the case that sometimes worry can be good. He gave the example of worrying about an illness - in the case a spot on the skin that could be cancerous.  Since skin cancer is a very real, and deadly, possibility, your worrying about it should spurn you to have it examined.  In that case, it's a healthy form of worrying.  It's more natural concern than worry, even when we dwell on it.  It's our brain's mechanism to check out anomalous things. For me, Matthew 7:21-23 is one of those "spots" you need to worry about.  In the passage, Jesus says many people who drive out demons, preach, teach and do miracles will not gain access into the Kingdom of Heaven.  They'll have all the outward signs of a believer but have no real, genuine relationship with Jesus Christ. That's a very scary proposition.  It addresses those of us who
Read more

God Uses Conflict

Image
I am not a big fan of conflict.  I don't know many people that are. Yet, one thing I learned in my communication classes in college is that in any human relationship or interaction, conflict is inevitable and unavoidable.  In fact, I teach in my marriage counseling that conflict, and how we handle it, can even strengthen our marriages. Conflict is not always a bad thing.  Through conflict, we see new points of view.  We grow as we weather the storm. We even strengthen our resolve. And, at time, God brings conflict into your life in order to move you from where you are to where he wants you to be. That's what happened with the Israelites.  In Exodus 14, we see that God moves to the Jewish people to the once place that means an unavoidable conflict with Egypt.  Surrounded by the Egyptian army, an impassible terrain and the Red Sea, Israel is forced into a confrontation with the Egyptian army.  They have no where to run and ultimately must listen to God as he directs the
Read more