What thing is more powerful for each of us personally than our identity?
The fear of being “Insignificant” is so powerful in humanity that we spend much of our day presumably protecting, bolstering, manipulating and or advertising our Identity so that it is strong enough to support our vulnerable ego.
For example:
Work and Job:
Most of us spend 8 hours or more each day DOING a job. We are evaluated, judged by performance, rewarded with money and accolades and or fired on these life-giving jobs. It is no wonder that our Identity can be wrapped up in them to a level of measuring our self-importance by them.
The problem is, as much value as we may receive from our position and title at work, it is never enough to sustain our fragile ego because
WE ARE NOT WHAT WE DO FOR A LIVING
Mother or Father
We hope to have a mom and dad. We hope that they will love us for the offspring that we are. But what if their love for us is tainted or immature? What if they were/are still trying to “find themselves–still searching for their own identities”? What if their parents failed to love them as we all hope a parent will do?
Even if their love for us reigns supreme, is their love for us to define us?
A lot of questions there but it all goes to remind us that, no matter their care for us
WE ARE NOT THAT LOVE (or absence of love).
Social Status and Possessions
After childhood, youth and young adulthood, most of us have seen a commercial or two. Capitalism demands our attention. It knows that our egos are often weak and fragile. Money speaks to us at our most vulnerable moments. That would be our supposed IDENTITY. We are supposed to compare ourselves with whoever they exalt before us as the model of true happiness and fulfilment in life. We are then told to become like them or else.
Here are some examples of how we listen: (not all are “bad”)
1-Tattoos
2-Latest fashion and style of dress
3-Great opportunities to perform for others (applause of man)
Remember when it became fashionable to be “Identified” with: (not all are “bad”)
1-Divorced
2-Wear the ADD – OCD brand
3-Vegan
4-Climate
5-LGBTQ
What we own and who society says we can be are closely linked. These are powerful image-setters and markers.
They have the backing of billions of dollars and when it comes to “buying us” they do know what they are doing.
They are professional you might say at manipulating our egos and telling us when and why we may or may not accept ourselves. They have become the faux-purveyors of truth and all things good.
Problem is, our identity is not a brand or a quantity of things.
WE ARE NOT THE SUM OF OUR POSSESSIONS and WE ARE NOT A SLOGAN OR A SOCIAL CAUSE.
Sexual Expression
Trying to make sex, sexual preferences, gender or any mix of all this into a viable human identity is like defining your car by its transmission, color of interior and speed potential. You can do it, but it makes no matter. How a person chooses to have sex or with whom is an activity, not and Identity. LGBTQ are adverbs as they relate to us—They are human activities and behaviors, not Nouns of identity. They are not some new-found species of humans. They are humans with the same propensities and inclinations to good and bad as the rest of us. They make choices just as do we. We were all born that way as it were.
This explains why when everyone goes home from the fun Identity Parade, everything falls back into reality.
Depression, shame and guilt happen when reality is rebuffed, and fantasy is revered. These are the natural consequences from denial of scientific truth–calling truth a lie and insisting that feelings are a reliable marker for how we will behave. For example:
“‘Sex change’ is biologically impossible. People who undergo sex-reassignment surgery do not change from men to women or vice versa. Rather, they become feminized men or masculinized women.”
–Dr. Paul McHugh
America has just over 10 percent of the world’s population, yet demands over 50% of the worlds psychologists, therapists and mind-altering drugs.
It is a serious error when WE SEEK TO MAKE OUR IDENTITY HAVING TO DO WITH AN ACTIVITY, sexual or otherwise.
WE ARE NOT WHAT WE DO FOR PLEASURE or what brings us delight.
Identity steals our identity when who we are is no longer about truth and reality but a pitch, sale and manipulation.
Who I am is predetermined and fixed as it relates to eternity.
Who I am is malleable as it relates to this present world and what people want me to be for their pleasure, success and advancement.
Who I am becomes who I am not when I listen and cave to the wrong advertisement.
Basically, if it is Hollywood, Popular Entertainment, Higher Education or sold on TV, I am but a pawn to their causes if I allow it.
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When a guy spins his webs of deceit for the girl with lines and hooks, she does have a choice. If he is just “too good looking” or “too wealthy” for her maturity and she bites the bait and is hooked, might she learn more about her true IDENTITY by being bitten with male deceit?
When a girl flashes her femaleness at the young impressionable fellow as if to say, “who you are can be raised from nobody to somebody, but not without my permission” and he takes the lure, might he be in for a surprise about his immaturity and lack of real IDENTITY?
WHO AM I THEN?
Origins matter. Better get this one foundation right or nothing else works.
Am I an object of care and love by design? For what purpose do I exist?
Or
Am I a blob of flesh with no rhyme or reason for existence other than to promote myself into significance because of what I do, who I hang with, how much I own or how I view pleasure and sex?
Or
Must I have the applause and approval of others before I am free to be me?
WHAT MAKES ME SIGNIFICANT AS A PERSON?
Origins matter. Better get this one foundation right or nothing else works.
Please consider that there is a God who created you and me.
If this is true, then our purpose for existence has nothing to do with our temporal station in life, Rather, it defines our existence. It pronounces it full of potential, wealth (not money) and fulfillment.
CONSIDER:
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nation.” (Jeremiah 1:5)
“For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works and that my soul knows well.” (Psalm 139:13)
“Know that the Lord Himself is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” (Psalm 100:3).
Find your own connection with the God who created you by seeking Him and by finding Him to be the only source for true IDENTITY AND SIGNIFICANCE.
HERE HE IS:
3 There was a man named Nicodemus who was a Pharisee and a Jewish leader. One night he went to Jesus and said, “Sir, we know that God has sent you to teach us. You could not work these miracles, unless God were with you.”
3 Jesus replied, “I tell you for certain that you must be born from above before you can see God’s kingdom!”
4 Nicodemus asked, “How can a grown man ever be born a second time?”
5 Jesus answered:
I tell you for certain that before you can get into God’s kingdom, you must be born not only by water, but by the Spirit. Humans give life to their children. Yet only God’s Spirit can change you into a child of God. Don’t be surprised when I say that you must be born from above. Only God’s Spirit gives new life. The Spirit is like the wind that blows wherever it wants to. You can hear the wind, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going.
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 Jesus replied:
How can you be a teacher of Israel and not know these things? I tell you for certain that we know what we are talking about because we have seen it ourselves. But none of you will accept what we say. If you don’t believe when I talk to you about things on earth, how can you possibly believe if I talk to you about things in heaven?
13 No one has gone up to heaven except the Son of Man, who came down from there. And the Son of Man must be lifted up, just as that metal snake was lifted up by Moses in the desert. Then everyone who has faith in the Son of Man will have eternal life.
16 God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent him to save them! No one who has faith in God’s Son will be condemned. But everyone who doesn’t have faith in him has already been condemned for not having faith in God’s only Son.
19 The light has come into the world, and people who do evil things are judged guilty because they love the dark more than the light. People who do evil hate the light and won’t come to the light, because it clearly shows what they have done. But everyone who lives by the truth will come to the light, because they want others to know that God is really the one doing what they do.” John 3:1-24
MORE VERSES ABOUT THE BELIEVERS NEW IDENTITY
“We know that the persons we used to be were nailed to the cross with Jesus. This was done, so that our sinful bodies would no longer be the slaves of sin. We know that sin doesn’t have power over dead people.
8 As surely as we died with Christ, we believe we will also live with him. We know that death no longer has any power over Christ. He died and was raised to life, never again to die. When Christ died, he died for sin once and for all. But now he is alive, and he lives only for God. In the same way, you must think of yourselves as dead to the power of sin. But Christ Jesus has given life to you, and you live for God.
12 Don’t let sin rule your body. After all, your body is bound to die, so don’t obey its desires or let any part of it become a slave of evil. Give yourselves to God, as people who have been raised from death to life. Make every part of your body a slave that pleases God. Don’t let sin keep ruling your lives. You are ruled by God’s kindness and not by the Law.” Romans 6:6-14
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“Suppose I had wings like the dawning day and flew across the ocean.
10 Even then your powerful arm would guide and protect me.
11 Or suppose I said, “I’ll hide in the dark until night comes to cover me over.”
12 But you see in the dark because daylight and dark are all the same to you.
13 You are the one who put me together inside my mother’s body,
14 and I praise you because of the wonderful way you created me.
Everything you do is marvelous! Of this I have no doubt.
15 Nothing about me is hidden from you! I was secretly woven together deep in the earth below, but with your own eyes you saw my body being formed.
Even before I was born, you had written in your book everything I would do.
17 Your thoughts are far beyond my understanding,much more than I could ever imagine.” Psalm 139:9-17
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“All of you are God’s children because of your faith in Christ Jesus. And when you were baptized, it was as though you had put on Christ in the same way you put on new clothes. Faith in Christ Jesus is what makes each of you equal with each other, whether you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a man or a woman. So if you belong to Christ, you are now part of Abraham’s family, and you will be given what God has promised.” Galatians 3:26-29
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“Some of you say, “We can do anything we want to.” But I tell you that not everything is good for us. So I refuse to let anything have power over me. You also say, “Food is meant for our bodies, and our bodies are meant for food.” But I tell you that God will destroy them both. We are not supposed to do indecent things with our bodies. We are to use them for the Lord who is in charge of our bodies. God will raise us from death by the same power that he used when he raised our Lord to life.
15 Don’t you know that your bodies are part of the body of Christ? Is it right for me to join part of the body of Christ to a prostitute? No, it isn’t! Don’t you know that a man who does that becomes part of her body? The Scriptures say, “The two of them will be like one person.” But anyone who is joined to the Lord is one in spirit with him.
18 Don’t be immoral in matters of sex. That is a sin against your own body in a way that no other sin is. 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. God paid a great price for you. So use your body to honor God.” I Corinthians 6:12-20
“3 Think how much the Father loves us. He loves us so much that he lets us be called his children, as we truly are. But since the people of this world did not know who Christ is, they don’t know who we are. My dear friends, we are already God’s children, though what we will be hasn’t yet been seen. But we do know that when Christ returns, we will be like him, because we will see him as he truly is. This hope makes us keep ourselves holy, just as Christ is holy.” John 1:1-3
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“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” II Corinthians 5:17
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