Finding your Identity in Christ... or whatever.
Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard the phrase “finding your identity in Christ” and rolled your eyes. Growing up in the church and youth group and hanging out with all the bible college kids back in the day even though I didn’t actually attend bible college I heard some form of this phrase fairly often. Even still as a pastor’s wife I hear it.
but like, what the actual f*ck does it mean?
It came up again in a life group at our church recently. Someone said something to the effect of “People always say this, but I want to know what it means, and no one seems to have an answer. What do you guys think?”
Finally, someone who isn’t acting like this is something we should all just intrinsically know how to do, and you are a bad Christian if you don’t. Girl, you are asking the right questions. Welcome to the cynics club, where we welcome questions, and like to point out all the crap that goes on around here. Have a beer.
Im not gonna pretend I have the full answer to this question, (see above where I mentioned that I didn’t attend bible college and judge me accordingly) but I do have some thoughts.
First, I think that a lot of times the pre-question to “What does it mean to find your identity in Christ?” is “Where do you find your Identity to begin with?” or “Where should you find your identity?” For the Christian, the answer here is supposed to be Christ, but often is something more along the lines of “my job” or “my family” or “money” if we’re really honest with ourselves.
But what if we switch out one of the words in these questions… What if instead of asking things like “where do you find your identity?” we ask “where do you find your value as a person?” this distinction seems small, but I’ve found it to be really helpful when thinking about this. It’s possible that the terms “identity” and “value” can be used interchangeably here. For me it’s easier to answer questions about where I find my value as a person than where I find my identity… and its way less confusing.
I can’t tell you where I find my identity, but I can easily tell you that I find value and meaning in my life from my job. I can tell you that I feel much less value and meaning from being a mother, and that I feel complicated about that. I can also tell you those are not the things that should or should not make me feel valuable as a person.
What should make me feel valuable as a person is Jesus. What should make me feel valuable as a person is that he actually ceased to be alive and then returned to life after a couple days to make death not a thing anymore in order to glorify God, and because he loved this shit storm called humanity — which includes me. I should feel thankful for that, and I should feel valuable because of it. Jesus didn’t have to do that for anyone, much less me.
The things that make you feel valuable in your life, are the things that you build your identity around. If your identity (value) is in work, then you live and die emotionally by how well or terrible your work is going. If your identity (value) is in your kids, then you ride the roller coaster of the two year old tantrums. If you find your identity (value) in Jesus, then you know that no matter what job comes or goes, or what the terrible twos bring, you are not defined by those things and that you have value above and beyond your work or home performance as a child of Christ, you have value just for being you.
Finding your identity in Christ is about allowing him to decide your value. Spoiler alert, he thinks you are great and you should believe him, and act like it.
