Who Am I?

Not Just A Name

 

The most fundamental concept we develop is also the most important. As an infant, we learn to respond to our name, but our name is not our identity. If you have any siblings, you learn early that your name differentiates you from the others — until your parent is distracted and “calls roll” while looking straight at you, which seems to indicate they may have forgotten the one thing you think identifies you.

I remember in elementary school being asked what differentiates us from everyone else. After several missed guesses, the teacher explained that the one thing that makes you unique is that you are the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. son or daughter born to your specific mother and father. From a biological vantage point, that would be true. But even as specific as our biological parents are, they do not determine our identity.

In our modern culture, it is common to express that parents “make” their children. How preposterous! Parents can only participate in the conception of a child, they can make no claim on crafting the DNA that will dictate each and every characteristic of a child or breathing the eternal breath of life into that eternal soul. We are created by God and are not a product of our parents as some would have us believe.

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”
Psalm 139:13-16

We often may think of this passage in reference to our physical bodies, but as my mother taught me, my identity is not my physical body. My soul, the essence of the person God created, is eternal and only lives in this body temporarily.

My mother’s unconditional, nurturing love demonstrated to me that I was hers, but from my earliest memories she stressed to me that I belonged to God. She would say, “You belong to God. God just loaned you to me to take care of.” Why is this so important? Who I am determines how I live my life. It sets my sense of self-value and purpose. If I discover my identity gives me privilege, my circumstances no longer rule over me.

I was intentionally created by the one who made everything, owns everything, and rules over everything. I belong to him. He is my Father.

I have spoken with so many women who were given a very false sense of identity. Many were rejected by one or both of their biological parents. They were made to believe that they were inconvenient accidents having no value or purpose. They, in effect started their lives with a sense of identity bankruptcy. Believing they had no value or purpose, they threw themselves on the trash heap of life.

In stark contrast, I have talked with women who had a loving parent or parents who instilled in them a sense of their God-given value and purpose and even though they may have had very little in the way of material possessions and in spite of distressing life circumstances, they persevered. Why? They had an identity that gave them the strength to endure hardships. An identity bigger than a name or parentage – a unique identity created by God.

Today, the prevailing formula for determining identity is strictly driven by emotions. “Be who you want to be.” Because our emotions and circumstances change from day to day, this is at best a very confusing philosophy to follow and definitely brings no sense of purpose or inner fulfillment.

Because none of us had any part in beginning our existence on this earth, we should be asking bigger questions than who do I want to be today or which of my various feelings should I submit my destiny to. First we should stand firm in the knowledge that we are an intentional creation of an all-loving God, who has a purpose for our life. With that settled, we can then ask what did God create me to experience and accomplish in this life.