By, Nadine Judge
Many years ago, a band called Supertramp sang a song called “The Logical Song”. The chorus goes:
“But at night, when all the world’s asleep
The questions run so deep
For such a simple man
Won’t you please (Won’t you tell me)
Please tell me what we’ve learned?
(Can you hear me?) I know it sounds absurd
(Won’t you help me?) But please, tell me who I am?
Who I am?
Who I am?
Who I am?”
Those questions about “who I am” still resonate to this day. People are trying so hard to understand their identity, which has given rise to so many challenges in today’s world.
A quote from Nicole Kidman, who is an accomplished, well-respected actress and can earn over 15 million dollars per film, said, “I don’t know who I am, or what I am, or where I’m headed.”
As those who believe in Jesus Christ, this question, “Who am I?” can be answered.
There has been a saying going round that it’s not about “who I am” but about “whose I am” and while that does have a ring of truth to it, it’s not the whole truth.
Let us have a look at some of the things that can challenge our identity.
1. Identity in our work
Tom Peterson tells us that “a job is an amazing thing. It not only has the incredible ability to pay your mortgage and to put your kids through college, it also can define your very identity.”
So often, when you ask somebody to tell you about themselves, they revert to what they do and not who they are.
In an article entitled, “Coping with Job Loss – Am I Meaningless,” it states, “It seems that much of our worth is wrapped up in the work we do. Our job becomes our identity . . . When we lose a job or are faced with a career change, we often feel we’ve lost our worth.”
This quote caught my attention: “You need to know your ‘who’ from your ‘do’.” (Unknown source)
We are not what we do, that has to do with skills and abilities, but when we understand that we are more than just a skill or an ability, but a person with a character, a mind, a heart, and a soul, we realise that we are a “who” and not a “do”.
2. Voices in our world
There are so many voices we grow up with. The voice of our parents, the voice of our grandparents, teachers, friends, and social media, which all play a role in determining our identity. A parent who continuously runs their child down gives the child the message “I am not worth it”. A teacher who calls you “stupid”, can give the child the sense of not being clever. I am sure that there are many more examples, and sometimes, these comments can start to form our identities. As children, we don’t know how to shield ourselves from these comments.
The world, through media of one form of the other, makes us think that we as ladies need to be skinny, and for the men, they need to have six packs and be tall. Whatever the rhetoric is that has gripped you, God has a voice about who He believes you are.
David in Psalm 139 shows how well he understands who God is: (Ps 139: 13 – 14) “For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful.”
The word “wonderfully” here is the Hebrew word “pala”, which means to be separate, distinguished, or unique. “Fearfully” is the Hebrew word “yare”, which is the same word the Bible uses when referring to having a “fear of the Lord”. It means a “deep respect and reverence for God.”
So, in a sense, we are deeply and reverently created, and we are unique – there is no-one like us. We are made like this only because of a wonderful and an all-powerful God.
Believe rather what Jesus tells you about what He says about you, and who you are and how much He loves you. Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
3. A New Creation
The great news we have as we learn to understand our identity, and that is the wonderful news that it is wound up in Jesus. Look at this verse: 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!!”
Because of what Christ has done, I am a new creation. Forming an identity because of work, or what has been said to me about me, all of that is not relevant because God has given me a new identity in Jesus.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” This does not mean that your individuality is gone, or that your uniqueness disappears (remember Ps. 139: 13 – 14). We are now associated with Jesus. He becomes our “work”, and He becomes the “voice in our ear”. We are now simply associated with Jesus and our identities are tied up in Him.
4. Finally
Having our identities tied up in Jesus gives us the ultimate freedom of knowing that we are “fearfully and wonderfully” made. There are no mistakes, regardless of our intelligence, our size, our height, our skin colour, or our hair colour. We are all “new creations”.
1 John3:1 “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
When we are called children of God, our identities change forever. Belonging to the “Most High” God should allow us to walk with our heads up, looking the world squarely in the eye, knowing who we are and whose we are.