How often have you gone to an event, attraction, restaurant, or to purchase a product that you were asked for your ID. Certainly when you travel by air, your ID is mandatory. Much civil debate has occurred over the issue of voter ID. Your identification is a frequent and pervasive requirement to live a normal life.
Then there is another way identity has been important. You've heard of people having an "identity crisis." You may have even had one yourself. In many ways identity is the beginning of mental health issues. You often hear about "identity politics" where race, sex, ethnicity, gender orientation, political affiliation, and other factors divide society into political tribes. In many ways identity keeps people in disunity.
Identify seems to matter a lot. Its referenced frequently and in a variety of contexts. Identity is a common, simple word. On the other hand, not a word that is well understood for all it's implications on us. The purpose of this blog is to try to shed light on its role in the human condition.
So, what do we know about identity?
In human psychology one's identity is the starting point for all thoughts, feelings, and choices. I'd say that's pretty important, wouldn't you?
You might say your identity is your psychological selfie.
Your identity is your self concept. It drives self-esteem.
You make sense of yourself in many ways. Each has different effects on you and can change across time and situation. Your identity has key influence on how satisfied you are, how you are motivated, and your overall sense of being OK.
Let's examine some of what human psychology has found makes up your identity.
You have a social identity, constructed by your family, your work place, where you live or where you are from. You have a personal identity. Some aspects of you come at birth, such as color of eyes, hair, and skin, personality (the tendencies you have to satisfy your needs), mental and physical abilities, physical attributes of size, and many more. Some aspects of you relate to what you do over your life. Mistakes can define you. Professional choices and achievements can define you and so forth. There is a particular movement to have purpose define you. Thirdly, you have a natural identity. You are a human being and not a plant or animal. Being only human brings a number of influences on how your mind works. Biases and flaws in reasoning come to each person when they identify with their human nature.
Because of how identity naturally works to influence the human mind, it's no wonder the forces of this world assault identity to deceive humans from what is true. Likewise, it's no wonder Saint Paul admonishes the Christian church to "be transformed by the renewing of the mind." It's no wonder that the main consequence of the redemptive work of the cross is a new creation (identity), an identity in Christ.
A transformed believer with a renewed mind will naturally reason from an identity in Christ that brings a completely different influence on how to think, feel, and choose than the natural reasoning coming from a human identity. Paul calls this walking according to the Spirit rather than walking according to the flesh. "According to" means identifying with.
What does all this mean? Basically it means that an identity in Christ is a loving relationship where
1. the influence of the Spirit satisfies us based on the provisions of the Kingdom willfully and graciously bestowed on us by Christ versus a satisfaction where the flesh requires us to successfully exchange what we do to gain what we need from the world ,
2. the influence of the Spirit motivates us to receive and reflect the light of Christ versus a motivation where the flesh requires us to pursue and produce goals that the world finds favorable,
and
3. the influence of the Spirit declares we are OK based on Christ's actions on our behalf versus an acceptance where the flesh demands us to conform to the demands of the world to be OK.
You should understand your identity, why the Prince of this World wants to contaminate it, and how the Gospel of Jesus Christ resolves all of the self concept distress we have by identifying in any way other than in Him.
