Glenn W. Harrell
We now have Mistaken Identity, Stolen Identity, Confusion of Identity, and Make Up Your Own Identity.
Science proves our gender. Government can produce our Social Security Identification. Finger prints, and DNA testing assure we are who we say we are. Beyond that, I’d like to know more about me. All along this journey of discovery, I am told that I am now free to be creative and expressive as I customize my identity around how I feel at any given moment. The answer to my Identity Dysphoria is more dysphoria as people around me make it their job to affirm my choices and even make it a law that others must approve of my choices, lest I cry and or threaten my life. Sometimes I feel as though I create my own identity fraud.
I TRY TO BECOME SOMEONE ELSE BECAUSE THEIR LIFE IS PRESENTED AS SUPERIOR TO MINE AND ME
I identify with all those who are attempting to arrive at a destination unknown. With them,
I want all the trinkets and all the toys along the journey so as to enhance my personality and identity,
I will pierce and tattoo my skin.
I will color and shape my hair.
I purchase brands that promise me success by association.
I am all about surface and cosmetics because I live by what can I see.
I am highly influenced by those in the world who have “arrived” and “succeeded”.
I will compare myself with any and all who may well become my competition.
I will join a gang or a club that purposes itself in propping me up and publishing me as a person of value and worth. So,
I plod along and hope to be discovered by the rich and famous, who in actuality are likely very poor and fading.
I make my identity in what I do, the people I know, and the things I possess, not who I really am.
We are all clamoring for the same attention as those who have been caught up in the identity crisis maze.
IDENTITY CRISIS SOLUTION:
Lose My Life. Relieve self of this impossible job.
Enter– the person who identifies with the man Jesus Christ.
Jesus tells me that,
“Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. I didn’t come to invite good people to turn to God. I came to invite sinners.” (Luke 5:32)
This is great news for people like me. Becoming a Christian via New Birth (John 3) will redirect the inner quest for manmade, comparative, temporal self-exaltation.
Here is what I gain from losing my old life:
1-A history lesson—what I used to be. (Colossians 1:21-23); (Galatians 4:8-9) (II Corinthians 5:17)
“You used to be far from God. Your thoughts made you his enemies, and you did evil things. But his Son became a human and died.
So, God made peace with you, and now he lets you stand in his presence as people who are holy and faultless and innocent.”
“But you must stay deeply rooted and firm in your faith. Before you knew God, you were slaves of gods that are not real.
But now you know God, or better still, God knows you.”
“Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
2-A future hope—death to my old self. (Galatians 5:24-26; 6:14) I no longer must compete with others or compare.
“And because we belong to Christ Jesus, we have killed our selfish feelings and desires. God’s Spirit has given us life, and so we should follow the Spirit. But don’t be conceited or make others jealous by claiming to be better than they are.” “Because of his cross, the world is dead as far as I am concerned, and I am dead as far as the world is concerned.”
3-A new identity (acceptance) and title. I am His child. I am a Saint.
–A CHILD “Humans give life to their children. Yet only God’s Spirit can change you (identity) into a child of God.” (John 3:6)
–A SAINT Though I will remain sinful until my physical death, I am no longer a “Sinner” (noun). (I Corinthians 1:2)
As Saints by calling and position, we err greatly when we make our identity exclusively about what we do and how we act.
4-A change of mind, spirit, heart and body. I am under new management. I get a new thinker in this old world!
Pleasing Him, (not appeasing) becomes my new ambition and IDENTITY. I am a pleaser. “Don’t be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to Him.” (Romans 12:2)
“You surely know that your body is a temple where the Holy Spirit lives. The Spirit is in you and is a gift from God.
You are no longer your own. (IDENTITY) God paid a great price for you. So, use your body to honor God.” (I Corinthians 6:19-20)
5-Relief from needing the approval of any other human. (Galatians 1:10) Identity in pleasing others.
“I am not trying to please people. I want to please God. Do you think I am trying to please people? If I were doing that, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
Here is the final word. Jesus, in speaking to all of us who are looking for security and identity, said:
“Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life (identity) consist of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15)
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart (Identity) will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-20)
UNIVERSAL IDENTITY NOTE: “In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.” (Colossians 3:11, CSB)
openhandspublications.com 