Why is it important to know your identity in Christ?
What is identity, and why is it important? How does your identity shape who you are?
A person's identity has to do with how a person is defined. Identity has to do with the distinguishing characteristics of an individual. So that begs the question, how do you define yourself?
Most of the time, in our culture, when trying to initially understand a person's identity, we're asked what we do and respond by stating our profession or title. We identify by what we do in our career. But why do we define ourselves mostly by what we do for work?
Aren't we more than what we do? Aren't we more than how much money we make? And what happens if we lose our job, or position, or money? Then how do we define ourselves?
Forbes Magazine posted an article titled 'How to Find Your Own Identity and Capitalize on it.'
Most entrepreneurs root their identities in their jobs, accomplishments, business ventures, and net worth. But when calamity strikes, many lose their sense of self-worth. Case and point, when the financial recession hit in 2008, tens of thousands of successful businessmen ended up committing suicide. Why? These business leaders all faced an identity crisis. Without their position in their companies or markets, they had no sense of who they were or what their lives were worth.
I've experienced the same thing. And it's a hard slap in the face to realize that my identity is so rooted in my work. I've face my own identity crisis, and needed to find a way out. I needed something much more solid and unshakeable to base my identity on.
Being a husband and a father was a great start, but even if I lost my family, how would I define myself? Ultimately, the answer I had to come to was that it was incredibly important that I know what my identity is in Christ. If I can know my identity in Christ, then it shapes and guides everything else I do. And when the storms of life hit, I always have stable ground to stand on.
