What’s Your Identity?
Once upon a time, I was a young mom to toddling crumb crunchers. I’m still a mom, but my adult children have quit leaving crumbs … well, for the most part.
Once upon a time, I was activities director and cheerleading coach at a boarding high school for teenagers from across the U.S. and around the world. I’m still in touch with several students and cheerleaders, but as a friend and not as a staff member.
Once upon a time, I was a cancer caregiver. I know how to stand alongside and care for someone dying of cancer, although I don’t currently occupy this role.
I recently read a book by Jamie Winship, Living Fearless, that caused me to put some thought into my identity. The book’s back cover copy reads like this:
“Living Fearless is your invitation to listen closely to what God is trying to say to you about himself, about the person he created you to be, and about all the other people he created and loves.”
Winship reminds readers that God was intimately involved in our creation:
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” – Psalm 139:13
God built an identity into our DNA, says Winship, and his “joy for us is that we understand that identity and live it out.” As an example, he tags King David as Shepherd-Poet-Warrior-King.
As the seasons of my life have changed, I’ve held different responsibilities. But my core identity has remained fairly consistent through the years. I am Wife-Writer-Encourager-Hospitality Giver. These are the purposes that occupy most of my time.
But my most important identity is daughter of the victorious King of kings. Which makes me a princess. But not a Disney princess. More like a warrior princess, battling alongside Jesus for the people I care deeply about, contending for love and light and truth.
Tim Keller adds this to the conversation on our individuality:
“Any identity based on your own achievement and performance is an insecure one.”
This isn’t about what you’re good at. Or how much you can cross off your to-do list on any given day. (I’m guilty of placing entirely too much importance on to-do lists for my sense of worth.) This is about knowing who you are in Christ Jesus, and knowing what he’s called and equipped you to do.
Henri Nouwen, a Dutch priest, professor, and theologian born in 1932, writes this about our identity:
“You can deal with an enormous amount of success as well as an enormous amount of failure without losing your identity, because your identity is that you are the beloved.”
Who do you belong to? What lights you up? Ask God what he created you to be, what he created you to do that will bring him joy, that will also bring joy to you and others. Ask him to light a fire beneath you to have the courage to step into your uniqueness in faith and boldness.
Author Ann Voskamp once sat next to an Orthodox Hassidic rabbi on a long flight. In the middle of their conversation, the rabbi turned to Ann:
“Every morning that the sun rises and you get to rise? That’s God saying he believes in you, that he believes in the story he’s writing through you. He believes in you as a gift the world needs.”
What’s your identity? How can you best be that gift the world needs?
