My Identity
Bill Hench, Elder
“Hi, my name’s Bill, I’m an MMA fighter.”
“Really? You’re from one of the toughest groups of people ever! I’m honored to meet you!”
“I know.”
Everyone is looking to having an identity with something that is bigger than themselves. I had a guy I know pull up to my house one day on his Harley with Harley jacket, bandana, boots and tattoo. “I’m VP of our motorcycle group of over 100 bikers!” he told me with pride in his sandpaper textured voice. That was his biggest identity. It made me sad.
Many of us choose our identity in what we do. “I’m a teacher.” “I’m a doctor.” “I’m a Realtor (nobody admits to that unless pressed to do so), gardener, mom, dad, grandma, archery hunter, engineer (I’d like to have that one), farmer, Ford truck owner…” and so forth.
Why these identities? First of all, it makes a much better introduction than, “Hi, I’m Bill, a worn out sixty year old white man with bad knees, back and hips whose memory isn’t so great.” And one of your Sunday school kids adds, “And, you don’t have much hair.” Oh yeah, thanks kid, I forgot that since looking in the mirror this morning.
Some of you have heard me speak of this before. We want to belong. We want to cling onto the biggest thing we know because there is security in having like-minded people with us in a bigger organization. For some it’s how they identify in their sexuality: gay, lesbian, bi, or straight, and others. Christian churches like to tout that they are Catholic or Protestant, broken into so many denominations that I wonder how God keeps track of them. Wanna go bigger in the U.S.? Add Republican or Democrat and it can get pretty interesting.
I think we need to confess to God that we are sorry for putting so much value on identifying with earthly labels that make us feel important. We all do it, and it can feel good. How about we follow up our confession to God by telling this truth to OURSELVES, “I’m a follower of Jesus Christ and a child of the Living God. Boom! Top that! I KNOW my daddy can whoop your daddy.” That statement to my neighbor will probably have him running for the gate in my fence, so, God has also made me a gardener, and it’s a lot easier to lead my intro with the gardener identity. Then I give him tomatoes, and try at some point in our friendship to tell him about my heavenly Father. I know this: if my true identity is in Christ, my confidence level will be sky-high, and getting to the subject of Jesus with my neighbor will be easy, peasy, lemon squeezy, to quote Elianna. It will just happen, especially as I pray for the opportunity.
My friend Douglas Shumaker would say, “Bill Hench, a Christian, cleverly disguised as a photographer.” Let’s keep things in the right order, remind ourselves who we are and who our daddy is, and share Jesus with our neighbors. Then THEY can have a new identity that tops ’em all!
