Who Am I?
If someone asked you who you were… what would you say? Would you answer with your job? Your hobbies? Your sport? Your social status? Your relationship? When you take these away, then who are you? A lot of times we put our identity in worldly things, but worldly things can only satisfy us for so long. They come and go. You loose your job, you get injured and cant play your sport, your kids grow up, relationships fail. However, there is one thing that always remains… and that is Christ. We should put our identity in him. Colossians 3:1-3 says “Since , then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”
Allison
When you talk about identity family is something that most people do not gravitate to describe themselves. But for me it is something that I have been struggling with since I was a kid. I was born in Mexico and adopted when I was a baby. I was adopted into a Filipino-American family so I grew up only knowing that culture. At an early age my parents told me I was adopted and for the most part I was fine with it. I never once questioned that they weren't my real family, but there was always a part of me that knew I was not one of them by blood at least. Growing up in a different culture that wasn't who I was by blood was hard for me because I always thought there was something missing. People would tell me aren't you hispanic why don't you speak Spanish? Or oh so you're not really Mexican because you didn't grow up in that culture. Or you're not really filipino because you aren't by blood. Growing up this is all I heard so finding my identity in my family was hard and something I still struggle with today. Speaking Spanish does not make me more or less hispanic. I consider myself half Mexican/Filipino because I cannot deny the Mexican part of me because it literally what makes me ME and the Filipino side is my family so how could I not acknowledge that. Similarly this is can relate to finding an identity in Christ. We may think we don't belong in Gods kingdom or we do not know where we fit but God wants us to be apart of his kingdom. He says we belong no matter where we come from and he sees our worth. God make us in his image we are wonderfully made so if you still struggle with where you belong just know that God loves you and accepts you no matter what.
Taylor
When growing up people always tell you to work your hardest in whatever you do and you’ll get the results you desire. Throughout my life tennis has always been a big part of how I saw myself. I started playing at the age of six and as I grew older the more the sport took a hold of me. Tennis quickly became my everything and if I wasn’t doing well in that then I was nothing. It took such a mental toll on me that on the court I would act like a totally different person than I was off the court. I would have outburst and would completely lose myself. My identity solely came from tennis, it was what gave me confidence and made me feel like I was good enough in this world. When I got to college my main focus was school and tennis. I just wanted to work hard, so that my coach could see that I deserved to played. I was the only freshman on my team last year and I felt so much pressure to work harder than the other girls. Tennis consumed me for so long that it caused me a great amount of stress. There would be times when I would have a bad day at practice or play bad in a match and wouldn’t want to be around people. Tennis was the one thing that kept me going, so if it wasn’t going well I felt like nothing. Then I began to development a relationship with the Lord and began to see that I am child of God. I realized that I was created for a bigger purpose and that tennis wasn’t the thing that gave me my identity. Once I started to realize this I started playing tennis for God's glory. I don’t play this sport so I can be praised, I play to praise him and thank him for giving me the ability to play this sport I love so much. Sometimes I still struggle with this, but I try to remind myself of who I serve. I serve a God who is loving, caring, and self-disciplined and that’s how I should act on the tennis. My identity is in Christ and people should be able to see that when I’m on the court. Now when I go out on the court I play my hardest in order to magnify his name and give him the highest praise because he gave me the ability to play.
Ashly
In society, we are taught to always think ahead and plan our future, but sometimes our plans don’t go the way we expected. When this happens, people usually feel lost because they end up putting their identity in those plans and when they have changed they kind of question everything. Starting college, I thought I was gonna go to school for 4 years, get into the nursing program, and become a nurse. Knowing that I had to apply to the program was scary to me. I had the fear of not being good enough. End of fall semester, Sophomore year, I was not able to apply to the program. This made my fear become a reality. To me, this was my everything, how I would define myself now and in the future. I felt as though I let down my family and most importantly I let myself down. I thought my identity was gone and therefore, I questioned myself and God. Even though I was confused and frustrated with God, I knew turning away from him wasn’t the answer. During this time, I was able to grow closer to God because I knew he would not want me to handle any situation alone and that I should offer up all my anxiety and fears about the future to him. Even though things did not go as the I would have liked it, I know now it was needed. I was able find myself and realize I am more than just my grades and the program I was accepted to. Don’t get me wrong, planning for the future is fine, but when we don’t center our plans around Christ that is where the problem is. We have to remember that we can’t put our hopes in temporary things because that will only fulfill us for so long, but instead we have a God that is eternal and will actually give us lasting fulfillment. Therefore, when we put our identity in the Lord, we no longer have to fear the future because God will provide and all he asks from us is to put our trust in him.
Emily
Throughout our teenage years, many of us struggle with the question of “who am I?” We try out different identities such as being athletic, popular, or artsy. “Let me hangout with the popular kids so people see me as popular” or “Let me dress athletic so people see me as athletic” were the thoughts that went through my head. I put my identity in what other people said, or thought about me. By putting my identity in Christ, I realized I should abandon any image of myself that did not come from God. What others said about me, and how they labeled me, shouldn’t define who I am. My appearance, the clothes I wear, and the people I hang out with shouldn’t define who I am either. Today, I often look at my identity like a resume. I let the things I “do” and my accomplishments define who I am. In High School I put all my time and energy into dance. I valued my accomplishments too much, and let that define who I was. Summer going into my freshman year of college was the first time I was not dancing. I felt emptiness inside of me. Now who am I? What should I “do” now? I started taking up running, kickboxing, and yoga, but still felt emptiness. Instead of searching for “something” I should have been searching for Christ. I later learned that my identity does not come from what I “do” but what God has done for me. This doesn’t mean that what we do is not important, but it shouldn’t define us. God gave you passions for a reason, not to define you, but to glorify him. Yes I am a dancer, but that does not define who I am. My identity comes from Christ, and I am using the passion and love he gave me for dance, in order to glorify him. My life is now not centered around dance; I used to say I couldn’t imagine my life without dance, now I say I can’t imagine my life without God.
Our main identity should be within Christ. You are God’s precious child and he created you in a way that pleases him. He gave us each unique characteristics such as a passion for a sport or hobby. However, those things should not define you. Instead, we should use those characteristics to glorify God. When people look at you they shouldn’t see you for your job, sport, or social status, they should see Christ.
