What Dog Breed Are You? Some Thoughts on Identity...
Last week my Facebook feed filled with Buzzfeed quizzes. It seemed everyone in America was answering the question “Which Hunger Games character are you?”
I’m Katniss.
I’m also Lady Mary on Downton Abbey.
Leslie Knope on Parks and Rec.
If I were a Disney princess I’d be Mulan.
I’m Harry Potter in Harry Potter.
And if I were a dog breed, I’d be a corgie. Which I thought was weird (the corgie was wearing a hoodie) but it sounded pretty great in the write-up. Evidently I’m charismatic.
I am a sucker for quizzes; I really like being examined and evaluated (I am positive I would become addicted to therapy). My friend Patrick and I have this in common (His dream is to one day run a human-sized rat maze while scientists monitor him and run tests).
I suspect I love quizzes for another reason, too. And maybe you’ll relate. I like quizzes because they tell me who I am.
And I am forever wondering that very thing… Who am I?
Am I a writer? Can I call myself that?
Am I “just” a mom?
Am I living up to my potential?
Am I on the right track?
Am I normal?
Am I behind?
Am I who God wants me to be?
Just try writing a twitter bio. “Who am I?” is a bear of a question.
Because I bet you have identity issues (just like me)—and because the question is the sort that inevitably charts the course of our lives—I figure it’s worth a few blog posts.
So this week we’ll talk identity.
All I want to say to start is this: You can’t figure out who you are by yourself. A team of scientists can’t tell you. Buzzfeed for sure can’t tell you. I wont tell you, either.
To know who you are, you’re going to have to consult the One Who made you.
David writes in Psalm 139,
You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain…
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
If you want to know yourself, you’re going to have to talk to God. He knows you like no one ever will.
Check back this week as we talk about…
- Accepting our “flaws”
- Letting go of accomplishments
- Living into God’s promises
- Boasting in Christ
and
- Embracing an identity better than any we could make for ourselves, one that cannot be taken away.