LEAven Blog

Who do you think you are?

Rather than an aggressive confrontation, this straightforward question, when asked simply, encompasses much of what occupies our journey in life.  Who do you think you are?  Hmmm. Who do I think I am?  How do we answer this question of our identity?

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!”  (1 John 3:1a)

As Christians, our identity is found in Christ.  We are children of God. That’s who we are.

However, we live in a world that scrambles to distract us from that.  As a result, we are often tempted to build our identity in so many other things…in our jobs, in our relationships, in our status, and in our accomplishments. Some of those things are blessings from God and, therefore, may not be inherently bad in themselves, but they are not and should not be the basis for our identity. We must resist allowing those roles to be the basis of our self-worth, thus becoming a distracting form of self-worship or idolatry.

Often, many of our God-given vocations in life start to feel like our identity…teacher, counselor, mentor, parent, sibling, and so on. We tend to forget that those vocations to which we are called in life are not our identity.  Especially for those called into church work, it is easy to confuse our vocation with our identity.  But we must hold fast to the truth found in God’s Word that our identity is in Christ and each one of us is a loved child of God. 

For our students, identity is even more confusing as they start to find their places in their various social circles. Concurrent vocations as student, brother or sister, friend, teammate, athlete, musician, and other social roles can sometimes distract a young Christian from his or her foundational identity in Christ as a loved child of God. Seeking a place to belong, young adolescents can easily fall into the temptation to embrace various identities primarily through a worldly lens.  As we guide our students, we must clearly direct them to Scripture and remind them to always remember their identity as loved children of God.

With politically charged movements bombarding us, pushing identity politics and subsequent division across all ages and demographics, it’s even more challenging for us to remember simply that our identity is in Christ. 

We are children of God, made in HIS image (Genesis 1:27).

We are part of the body of Christ, and that brings us unity in the Spirit (Ephesians 4:3). 

We are loved and cherished by our creator, who has called us by name (Isaiah 43:1).

So…who do you think you are?