Who am I?
What makes me me?
Am I valuable? If so, what is it about me that gives me value?
These are the types of questions we ask early on in our lives and spend virtually the rest of our lives trying to answer. What makes our search for identity so difficult? Are we looking in the wrong places? Where are we looking? Allow me to suggest the four most common places we go to in our hunt for identity: beauty, ingenuity, activity, and prosperity.
Anyone who has been around children for any significant period of time will notice how absolutely enamored they are with stories. Bedtime stories, naptime stories, during the day stories. They just love stories! And the more excitement a story bears, the more intrigued they are with their childlike anticipation and the glistening in their eyes.
But have you ever tried telling a child a story where he or she was actually a part of the story? Now you definitely have their undivided attention!
Now think back to your own childhood. Do you remember any stories you were told as a child? Take a few moments to reflect back. Any favorites pop up in memory? Any where you were the hero or heroine of the story?
The search for identity is one of the “big questions” that we all face sometime in our lives.
But unfortunately we tend to look for the answer in all the wrong places. We long to belong, we long for someone or something that can satisfy our deep longing for identity. Some try academia and degrees. Others try work. Some try material possessions and wealth. Others try relationships and popularity. Some even try ministry. All to satisfy their innate desire to belong.
What if God created us for something so much greater? What if CS Lewis was right when he wrote, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world?”
My friends, let us seek to discover who we are by returning to our Creator. God has granted you and me our only accurate ID card. He actually paid an eternal price for it. Only an eternal God can satisfy our eternal souls.
Only by knowing Him, can we discover our invaluable uniqueness and matchless individuality. Don’t settle for anything less!