Looking For Identity In All The Wrong Places

​We live in a world where increasing emphasis is being placed on self-affirmation.  We have made ourselves the center of our own universe and anything that challenges our constructs of self-worth is rejected, viciously fought against, and expelled to the outer void.  Nothing is safe from banishment.  Not truth.  Not centuries of accepted tradition.  Not religious doctrine.  Not scientific facts.

In a world ruled by self-affirmation, identity is king.  But more and more people are seeking their identity in all the wrong places.  They seek it in race.  They seek it in sexual preference.  They seek it gender identity.  They seek it in political affiliation.

But these identities alone don’t bring fulfillment.  And hence we must contrive grievances.  No failure is our own – it is the result of a bias against our identity group.  We inflate our self-importance by fighting for our group – and this battle can never end, because the day we declare victory we lose our excuses, we lose our preferred status as a marginalized group.  And so, we perpetuate a cycle of conflict that grows ever more vicious and ever more detached from reality.  And despite it all, the ultimate fulfillment we seek remains elusive.

But there is an identity that brings ultimate fulfillment.  It is an identity that we all can claim because it is our true identity.  This identity requires no excuses for our failures.  It requires no imagined conflicts to boost our egos.  It is the greatest identity any living being can claim.

It is the identity of being made in the image of God.  It is the identity of being placed in the world for the sole purposes of loving and being loved.  It is an identity that recognizes that we all fail but that our worth is so great that God sent his only son to die to redeem us and wipe away every one of our failures – no matter how great.  It is an identity that is eternal.  It is not extinguished by death.  It lives on forever, in perfected form in fellowship with the loving God who created it.
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Is not this identity far superior to any of the ones we have contrived?  Is not being a child of the one true God better than being one of an infinite number of genders?  Is not a place in an eternal paradise better than a spot on a float in a gay pride parade?  Is not allegiance to the Lord of all creation better than loyalty to a corrupt political party?
You can claim this identity at any time simply by surrendering your failed identity to God.  The choice is yours.  You can continue to seek fulfillment in all the wrong places, or you can find true fulfillment in the one who created your true, unique identity.