Identity
Have you ever been mesmerized by a magic trick?
We’re in a weird age, aren't we? There’s a LOT going on, there’s a butt-ton (ahem boatload, excuse me) of information in our literal faces all day every day. Yes, it comes from social media and cell phones, but it also comes from the radio, tv, the general internet (been on YouTube lately?). It’s plastered on billboards, painted in art galleries, and written into commercials. It’s in the paper your grandma has laying on the breakfast table and on your Spotify playlist. It’s in our church services and our school lessons. Guys, I don’t know if we can really get away from it unless we move to a remote island and live off of the fish and flora. And since I wasn’t a Girl Scout, I don’t really feel up to that. So what. Am I the only one that feels tired of it all? What are we going to do about it? Here’s the REALITY: We’re here and it’s now. We see the legit information and the propaganda. We exist among people with whom we do not see eye to eye, and have teammates who are in this journey with us. So in the midst of all that, I want to get real and talk about something that seems to be heavily weighing on all of our minds: Identity.
Ya know, today, the word “identity” comes with a certain baggage. It seems that nowadays, it’s overwhelmingly associated with “gender identity.” You’ve probably heard the term. It refers to whether someone sees themselves as one gender or the other. Like even though they might be physically, biologically made with the components of a guy, if they see themselves as a girl, they might “identify” as female. There are LOTS of variations on this concept, all dealing with a discrepancy between physical make-up and mental/emotional perception. We don’t need to get too into the details here. The point is, the word “identity” has sort of been hijacked by this one particular concept in our world today, but that’s not all to which the word “identity” applies. Here’s the actual definition, taken from dictionary.com
noun, plural i·den·ti·ties.
the state or fact of remaining the same one or ones, as under varying aspects or conditions.
the condition of being oneself or itself, and not another: He began to doubt his own identity.
condition or character as to who a person or what a thing is; the qualities, beliefs, etc., that distinguish or identify a person or thing: a case of mistaken identity; a male gender identity; immigrants with strong ethnic identities.
the state or fact of being the same one as described.
the sense of self, providing sameness and continuity in personality over time and sometimes disturbed in mental illnesses, as schizophrenia.
exact likeness in nature or qualities: an identity of interests.
So let’s break this down. Do you ever feel like you’re unsure of who you are? Maybe you’re learning new things that you like to do- a sport or art of some kind, or academia. Maybe you’re in the middle of a move to a new city, new school, new home, or new job. Or maybe you’re growing a lot (physically or mentally) and you don’t feel like you are who you were. Sometimes it can feel like those things make up who we are- the clothes we wear, the activities that we do, the talents we have, the friends in our group, etc. And in a sense, they do reflect our unique personalities . However, personality and identity are not the same thing. “Personality” changes with our interests, decisions, expressions, and interactions; but according to our definitions here, “identity,” is cold hard fact. It’s who you are. Here’s the thing- with all that information that we take in every day all day, like we talked about at the beginning, we are confronted with thoughts about who we are. See, when we see a makeup tutorial “before and after” with lots of likes for the “after,” but we look more like the “before,” we immediately start thinking things like “I gotta wear make-up so I can be prettier.” When we catch the tail-end of an article about a boy coming out of the closet that shares certain interests with us, we might immediately begin to think, “I like some of those things too… I've had some of those thoughts too… am I gay?” This one, as stupid as it sounds, tends to get me- I’ll see a picture of a woman with beautiful hair, exactly like I’d like to have, and then I’ll quickly realize that her hair texture is not like mine and my hair would never do what her’s is doing… which just as quickly digresses into my complete ugliness :woman-facepalming::skin-tone-2:. But guys! We’re not! We’re not ugly. We’re not gay. We’re not stupid. No, who we are is cold hard fact. Let me tell you some of those facts.
GENESIS 1:27 We are made in the image of God, either male or female
JOHN 1:1-5 We are made by God
PSALM 139 We are known and seen
ROMANS 8:38-39 We are Loved
MATT. 5:13-16 We are Influential in our world
MATT. 18:12-14 We are Precious
ROM. 8:28-30 We are Called
JOHN 3:16We are Forgiven
And that’s not even an exhaustive list!! (Side-note: I’ve left some space in the comments- would you add a few more scriptures about your identity to the list?)
Ok, so how does this help? It’s sort of like an illusion. Have you ever watched a magic trick and thought, “how did they do that?!” Totally mesmerized by the illogical, magical occurrence you just saw with your own eyes. It looked so real. You couldn’t detect a flaw in the performance to even try to disprove what you just saw. You have an eye witness- yours! You can’t understand how it couldn’t be true, so you just throw up your arms and say, “well, it must really be magic.” We just accept the trick as reality because we can’t find evidence that it was an illusion. But what if we could? What if we could put a hidden camera backstage and watch the magician practice his tricks behind the scenes? Or what if we knew, :clap:for :clap:a :clap:fact that what he just did was not possible? What if we could pull back the curtain and say, “I caught you faking it. Here’s what really happened…”
See, that’s what we can do with those scriptures. Knowing the truth (scripture), helps us to debunk the illusion satan is trying to sell us. Since our identity is cold hard fact, unchanging, we can call the enemy (satan) on his crap. We can call the news on its crap. And FaceBook and Instagram and Pinterest and YouTube and TV and Spotify. YOU ARE WORTH IT! YOU ARE LOVED! YOU ARE PRECIOUS! YOU ARE CALLED! YOU ARE INFLUENTIAL! YOU ARE FORGIVEN! YOU ARE MADE BY GOD, FOR GOD, IN THE IMAGE OF GOD! He crafted you piece by piece, inside and out. He made every strand of my fine, straight hair with immense care and love and craftsmanship. You too. He made you too. And who you are is cold hard fact. You are His.
