Identity

This study of John continues to totally captivate my attention. Most recently one of the things that came out of our study was identity. Jesus repeatedly identifies himself in John; I am: the bread of life, the light of the world, the living water, the way, the truth, the life. 

So who am I? A wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, an auntie, a nurse, a teacher.........and on goes the list. But none of those are really me. Those are relationships that I have, or things that I do, but they aren’t me. 

I spend a lot of time talking to young people and their parents who are trying to identify who they are. So often the discussion is based around the building of a college application. My child is an athlete, an artist, a musician, a linguist, a maths genius........ Then there are the national identities, and the passport identities, and the religious identities. My child is an A student, a C student. And from the children: I am an academic success or I am a failure, I am my families hopes and dreams, I am a disappointment, I am unwanted, I am a singer or a dancer, I am a basketball player or a video game nerd. There are so many labels. 

The problem with all the labels is, that there is always a better mom or a better nurse or a better wife or a better friend. No matter what we can do, eventually someone else does it better.  And no matter how hard we try, we fail some days.  And so we can never measure up. Our current obsession with social media has exacerbated this to the extreme.  We are bombarded all day long with photos of other people who seems to have it all together and look as if they are living their best life:  Perfect families, Sucessful jobs, Beautiful Homes, Happy Marriages.  When our worth is found in what we do, then we always have to keep doing. And failure to do equals failure as a person. 

I’ve been navigating that struggle with several people I care about this year. The idea that success or failure according to a set of criteria can define our worth as a person. It’s helped me to recognize where I do the same thing to myself or even worse to my children. It’s so easy to believe and such a damaging weight to carry. Thankfully it isn’t the only way. And by His grace, our hurting hearts can learn to let go of the impossible standards set for us and instead to find rest in who we are really created to be. 

Jesus carefully tells us who he is in the book of John. He also carefully tells us who we are, and he’s not shy. We are sinners separated from God......but in spite of that, we are offered everything: life, satisfaction, love, family, acceptance. The only catch is, it is all through Jesus. And there we, like every person before or after us, must make a choice. To accept or reject both the identity of Jesus and our own identity. 

To find our identity anywhere else always leaves us unsatisfied. We will never measure up or be enough on our own. The striving to reach whatever standards we have chosen to identify ourselves by will leave us tired and dry. 

But we are offered the living water that never runs dry, the bread of life that fully satisfies, eternal life that can’t be taken away, and an identity as children of God in a family that never disappoints. Fully known, fully accepted, fully loved. But only through Jesus. “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father except by me.” “But to as many as receive him, who believe in his name, he gives the right to become children of God.” “Truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life. He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life.”

What you decide to do with Jesus is the only true determiner of your identity. 

And so I rest in that; eternally secure through none of my own efforts. My faith is in who He is, and what He has done for me. That is my identity. That is who I am.