The Way Out of the Identity Crisis

Our culture is in an identity crisis. We don't know who we are. We don't know why we're here. We don't know why we were created. We live with our eyes on the ground, with limited sight and perspective, just trying to be happy, do good deeds, resist temptation. All of this doing and spent energy without realizing that the Lord wants His people to know Him, to understand His heart. He created us out of desire for communion and fellowship with humanity. But we've lost vision of God's high vision for us. Instead, we're trying to find our own purpose in life. 

In that searching, aspects of our identity have been found and magnified to become our only identity. Our sexual identity is a prime example of this. All of us are sexual beings, God created this to be a PART of who we are, but it is most definitely not ALL that we are, or even the major part of who we are. But it's been exponentially exaggerated to become all that we embrace or all that we make known to the world around us. Gay or straight, this or that. This obsession to fight for our sexual preference has become exactly that...an obsession...on a minor part of who we are as human beings. In fact, our sexual identity isn't even eternal! It dies when we die! So, why are we as a culture spending so much time fighting for this small part of who we are? Why this obsession? 

We don't know who we are. So, we cling to these smaller aspects of ourselves instead of dealing with the bigger questions. The most common cry of most people is, "I need to find my calling." The question they're asking in this is, "Why do I exist?" We live our whole lives in search of something that will bring satisfaction, fulfillment, happiness, pleasure. Each of these desires are actually given by God, but how we go about fulfilling these desires is where the breakdown occurs. It's the point where our true identity meets a false identity in the boxing ring. Most of us spend our time looking in the wrong places attempting to fulfill these desires in the wrong ways, with the wrong things. 

The church isn't exempt from this. The pressure for the right job, the right spouse, the right children, the right house exists in the church as well. The status pressure. I struggled with this for YEARS!!! I didn't marry my husband until I was 37 years old. The pressure to meet someone, date someone, the feelings of inadequacy were immense both inside and outside the church. What God taught me in those 20 years of desiring, waiting, wondering, wailing...is that NONE of these things fulfill me. NONE of these things define me. My husband, my children are the joy of my life! But what if they never came...what if they were taken away? Who would I be? Why would I be here? The answer to those questions are the same with or without my earthly desires being fulfilled. Why did God create me? What is my eternal calling? 

The answers to these questions slay and destroy the identity crisis. The answers to these questions raises my eyes off of the ground, off of the smallness of my perspective and places it upward to the Creator. The Creator who has a purpose, intention, lofty ideas in mind for my existence. I guarantee it's far greater than my sexual preference. I guarantee it's far greater than my racial heritage. I guarantee it's far greater than my college degree, my housing situation, my family status. It's far greater than any of these things. 

Regardless of age, job, gender everyone of us is called to KNOW God intimately and to search Him out fervently with all that we are. We were made by God for God, in God's image. Think about Adam in the garden, undefiled by sin. What mysteries of God was he privy to? What did he see with sinless eyes...inexpressible things? God purposefully placed Adam in this garden paradise for one reason: to walk with Him, to understand Him, to know Him. Angels do not have this same connection.  No other creature formed has within them God's internal makeup designed for relationship.  The first chapter in all of Scripture reveals God's desire to be intimately known. 

The way out of the identity crisis is to pursue to KNOW God in all areas of your life. As you know God, you know who you are in Him. If you know Him as Father, you know your identity as Child. If you know Him as Savior, you know your identity as Saved. If you know Him as Bridegroom, you know your identity as the Bride. This is the knowledge that drives the trajectory of our life. I do not have to fight for my identity to fit in or be accepted anywhere when I can honestly say that my true identity came from the King of kings, the Lord or lords, the Creator. Who can argue against that? Get your eyes off the limited view of the ground, the daily grind. Lift up your heads, that the King of Glory may come in! See yourself in greater ways, in a broader perspective defined by the Creator and not by the limited labels/confines of culture, and love God by knowing Him.