Skip to main content

Who Are You?

      Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. (Galatians 6:15)

 

Who are you? What are you? There are so many words that seek to pin this down. Are you female, male, or some term that 90% of the population won’t understand but it makes you feel special to claim it? Are you black/a POC/African American, or white/European American, or something else? Are you a Democrat or a Liberal or a Leftist, or a Republican or a Conservative, or a Libertarian? Are you a parent, a child, a sibling, a cousin, or another relative? Are you a Karen, or are you identified by any other name? Because, of course, if you have any other name, you’re OK, but if you’re a Karen, you’re a monster even if you’ve never done anything monstrous. Or, maybe it’s that because you’re a Karen, anything you do is monstrous even if someone else doing it would be fine. Are you a high school dropout, a high school graduate? A college graduate? A master? A Ph.D.?  Are you an Aries? An ESTJ? The list by which we can identify ourselves is endless.

The identity game reminds me of juggling. The person who can keep the most identities in the air for the longest wins. Or maybe it’s closer to plate spinning. The person who can keep the most plates spinning on dowel rods for the longest wins. The contestants scurry up and down the line, repositioning and re-spinning plate after plate. And they pray that only one plate will need to be re-spun at any given moment because if they’re required to re-spin more than one at a time, plates are likely to shatter. One cannot truly be two or more different people at a time without damage to one or more. be both this and that at the same time, both are likely to crash to the ground and shatter. If that happens, others may follow and the spinner will be seen as a failure.

This is difficult. Identity tends to equal value. Whatever the currently declared winning identity, if you’re not that, there’s part of a larger identity that deserves special treatment: a victim.

Scripture doesn’t use the term identity, but God made it clear through Moses that the Jews were not to identify with the people who lived in the land before them. And He makes it clear through Paul that Christians are not to identify with the world. The question is not what color your skin is, or what color your politics are, or what excites your lusts. The primary and central question of identity is Christian or not Christian. Everything you add just muddies the waters.    

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more