The real Identity Crisis

                  Category: Religion and Philosophy        Wednesday, October 18, 2006
 

Over the years I have met a lot of people who could not identify who they are to me in any specific way. If you look into the lives of many troubled people today you will see that most of them are searching to find who they are, and usually with little or no success in finding who they are. I believe the inability to recognize ourselves is a major contributor to most troubled lives today. It is amazing to me as I have watched people, churches, and businesses fail simply because they do not know who they are, or will not accept themselves as the individual that God has created, or the organization that God has given them stewardship over.

I also have found that most of these failures would have been avoided if we would all get back to the basics of scripture and teach those basics to those around us, especially our children.

 

If we take time to think about are own identities we may find ourselves opening up a very interesting can of worms. Each one of us makes up a special person. We collectively form entities that also have independent identities. Organizations such as clubs, businesses, churches, large corporations, all the way to the nations of the world all have identities that are easily recognizable. Think about it. Look around and see if you can identify the personality of a nation. Take a country like Israel and write down the personality of that nation then you will see what I am taking about.

            I believe the first place to start with any subject is the foundation. I also believe that most churches fail in using that simple basic approach when helping people understand God, and then in turn to understand themselves. We are hearing too many Sunday school lessons about the awesome apostle Paul during worship services and not enough WORSHIP about who God is and who He made us to be. I say leave the Sunday school lessons in Sunday school and let's hear about God and worship during worship services!

(Ok, I'll stop preaching, I need to settle down now!)

            Genesis 1:27 states that God created man in His own image. Let's think about what that means. The scriptures say that way back when God created the universe that His face moved on the waters. That He thought and spoke the world into existence. That He was spirit with no physical attributes. So, how is it He created us in His image.

            If you look at God in the scriptures you will find first of all His characteristics, of love, patience, anger, sorrowful, righteousness, a truly thinking emotional God. You will also find that He is made up of three parts. First God the Father, second God the Son, and then God the Holy Spirit. Now take just that little bit of this information and apply it to yourself. We also are emotional beings. We have the ability to love, to dislike, being patient, to be angry, to be full of sorrow or grief, etc. only because God made us in His image. Aren't you glad? If He hadn't, we would just be zombies.  To go further with this thinking, compare yourselves to the simple straight forward but hard to understand description of God. Take what we have called the trinity of God and apply it to yourself. God the Father represents His mind. God the Son represents His body. God the Holy Spirit represents His spirit or soul. My friends what are we made of? We have a mind, body, and soul. This is one of the most important things that God meant when He said He created man in His own image. Now go back to where I said God thought the world into existence. If you are honest with yourself and take time as you think about the world you are living in, you will see that you also have thought your world into existence. Now of course since we are not God, we make mistakes when building our world, but God has given us the choice in every matter surrounding our decisions and thoughts. Doesn't that explain why many of our worlds are so messed up? Usually because of bad choices!

            My friends this simple truth holds the keys to so many problems today. I have been involved with businesses that have failed because they were so busy seeking to change who they were that they had no goals or direction and quickly failed. I have worked closely with a church that was so busy trying to keep everyone happy by constantly changing who they were that the church lost its identity, so no one knew who the church was. The staff lacked the courage to be who they were called to be, so most of the previously dedicated membership left.  Why did they leave? They left to go plug in someplace else that had an identity a place where they could feel secure. Worst of all, I have watched in my own life and the lives of many others the internal division that is created when one cannot find themselves and attach themselves to their own identity. It took me many years to find who God really made within me and then to accept myself as that person which God created. Only then did I find peace. In all of these examples above, the victims which are the businesses, the churches, and the people all adapt other identities trying one and then trying another until they self destruct. Many disassociate from themselves.  Others just drop into a state of tolerance and become mundane and ineffective. I have known some that decide to commit suicide and totally destroy themselves and all that is around them. Simply, because they were not taught the simple and basic principles of scripture in relation to their own lives, and who God had made them.  God made individuals, not one of us is alike. Yet why do we cast out those which are brave enough to be different, to display who God made and without shame.  This should not be so! Maybe we should all read the commission that Christ gave in the last chapter of Mark. The gospel is the truth. This is spreading that truth.

Until next time! Blessings,  Dave


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