Identity

"Identity." That's a word that has been in the forefront a lot these days. How we identify. With whom we identify. These seem to be sticking points on every social media site and news platform of late.

I would readily agree that identity is important, very much so... but I also suppose getting to the crux of our true identity depends on who is doing the identifying.

A few weeks back a couple of things happened in quick succession that made me think a great deal about just how important identity is. I received a letter in the mail from the federal government. It was an official inquiry wanting me to verify my identity before my tax return could be processed. Let me tell you, that certainly got my attention and made me want desperately to make sure the IRS knew exactly who I was. Identity theft is no laughing matter.

Within days Tom and I found ourselves sitting in a Home Depot parking lot surrounded by two police cars with lights flashing... for us! I could only have hoped it was for some sort of moving violation. Did we turn in front of someone? Cut somebody off? Exceed the speed limit? No. We were met with very serious officers who wanted to search our car because they had received two separate reports of someone screaming for help from within our van!! They had our vehicle description and had been given our exact license plate number by both parties. That got our attention even more than the letter from the IRS!

"They think we're kidnapping someone?!" "Do they think we're trafficking people?!" I was both shocked and mortified that we would be identified in that way... even if it turned out to be kids just wanting to play tricks. It was no joke to us. And just in case you're wondering... of course they didn't find anything in the van except the two of us, a couple of salvia plants we had just purchased from a competing nursery, and some ice cream wrappers from McDonald's!!

These two incidents made me realize how crucial true identity is.

But what is true identity anyway?

Is our identity something society imposes on us? Is it something we impose on ourselves? Is it mere descriptors having to do with our role within our family or our job as mom or dad, sister or brother, teacher, lawyer, nurse, or childcare provider?

There are myriad ways in which one can identify oneself whether by gender, ethnicity, religion, familial relationship, class standing, college attended, income level, neighborhood community, political affiliation.... The list is practically endless.

With all these possibilities, which are the ones that truly identify us. Which ones define us?

Are we going to leave that up to the world to do? I don't know about you, but I surely wouldn't. The world can be dismissive, callous, biased, and cruel. Perhaps I should be the one to do the defining. I'm not certain I could be a fair judge of myself either though, at least when it comes to my character. As a flawed individual, I would likely inflate my positive attributes and downplay, or flat-out dismiss, my faults. I mean, realism has its limits!

This past weekend, Tom and I were spending some time with our daughter Sarah and her husband. They are in the process of trying to buy a house, so she was sharing her ideas and Pinterest pictures with me of how she hoped to decorate if the deal goes through. She mentioned one of the accounts she follows, a gal who is considered an "influencer" because of her huge following on Instagram. Sarah mentioned that this woman had announced a need to get off her social media platform for a few months because of all the stress she was experiencing having to stay "on top" of her game, to be bigger, better, and splash-ier (yes... it's a word!) with every successive post. It was beginning to affect her health, so she was walking away for a while.

I took a look at her video when I got back home. It was kinda heart-wrenching. This beautiful, successful woman was feeling depressed because of the feedback social media was generating each time her post lacked the numbers. Who decides this, I don't know... probably some mathematical algorithm, but it was making her miserable and endangering her physical well-being. It was sad.

External forces like social media platforms should not... I repeat... should not be the ones defining our worth! They should not... but they can and they do, and that is utterly heartbreaking. I think we are experiencing a massive level of identity crisis in this country. To be totally honest, I think the country itself is experiencing an identity crisis of its own.

The questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What is my purpose? have dogged people forever. These questions are raised out of the need, the deep desire, to know our identity, because if we know that, all the rest of the blanks automatically fill in. Where do we go for the answer?

There's only one place I know for the truth. No lies. No pretense. The truth... and nothing but the truth. It is God's Word. The Bible gives us the answers to the questions we want most to know.

Who am I? 1John 3:1 tells us, "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are."

I am a redeemed child of God, ransmomed from sin, death, and the power of Satan by the precious blood of Jesus. I am not perfect, far from it, but I am loved so much that my heavenly Father would trade the life of His only Son for mine. I am a child of the Most High, and I am precious to Him. So are you.

Why am I here? Galatians 3: 27-28 tells us, "For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

I am here to be in relationship first and foremost with my Creator and with my Savior. That relationship is vertical. I go to Him with my prayers and my praise, with my worship... and He comes to me that same way in Word and Sacrament. That's not where the relationship stops though. Being in relationship with the Lord means that I am also in relationship with others - a horizontal relationship- with my brothers and sisters in Christ.

What is my purpose? Colossians 3: 1-3 tells us, "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."

My purpose is to let go of the things of this world, and to cling to the things above. My every thought, my every desire is to be focused on the eternal. That means sharing Jesus with a hurting world, a world full of people desperate to understand their identity too.

Satan would love us all to believe that we're "less than." He would delight in nothing more than to pit us one against another, fighting for which version of identity matters most. The "world" can never tell us that, no matter how hard it tries, because the world is diametrically opposed to the One True God. It is in direct conflict with the God who loves us, who sacrificed for us, who calls us His beloved.

No. The safest, truest place to find our identity is in the One who calls us by name, the One who knew us before He formed us in our mothers' wombs, the One who rescued us when we were drowning in sin, and the One who is preparing a place for us for all eternity.

I am my Beloved's and He is mine. He is yours too. That is the only... ONLY... identity that matters.