This past week has been fairly eventful. The MLB World Series started and finished in 5 games. The Presidential election is down to the final week before election day. The weather was all over the place and we got our first significant rainfall in months. The Halloween and Reformation Day festivities played out. That’s not even including all the normal work and home demands that occur most weeks where we put on our different hats. Sometimes we forget what hat we are wearing and jump back and forth in our different roles on the phone and in person. Do you fit the role of your political demographic that gets dozens of political flyers to convince you how to vote, or is there more to you than just how you are categorized? Do you identify more with your favorite sports teams, or with the vehicle you drive? We are each pretty unique individuals, but when you look at large groups of people, certain trends tend to emerge. Do the data miners know more about you than you do yourself? Who knows you best?
For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 2 Timothy 1:7
Most of us find a big part of our identity in what we do for a living, and in our roles at work and home. When someone asks you your name and then what you do, what is your response? Most of us state our current job or career path and leave it at that. But everyone has a story to tell if you have the time to ask and listen to their responses. Where are you from, tell me about your family, what hobbies do you enjoy, tell me about your faith journey, what do you hope to accomplish in live? If you really want to get to know someone, you have to take some time to get to know them, and to ask some meaningful questions. How well do you know the people you spend the most time with at work and home?
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9
If you are a follower of Christ, is your identity partly or fully in Him? Do you confess Him with your lips for a couple hours on Sunday then go about your own agenda the rest of the week? It is difficult to identify with someone that you don’t know very well. You may support a certain political candidate, but only know their platform, and what they tell you in ads and during interviews, but you don’t fully know how they are going to vote or govern. You may identify as a Christian, but don’t know every verse in the bible, or even have an idea of a verse someone quotes if valid or not. But you can always read and explore scripture to get to know the character of God in Jesus better. You can always pray and seek to converse and get to know Him more. Then your identity will grow stronger each day as you become more like Him!
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20
Yours in Christ,
Clark
