Who Am I? – Insight on Your Personal Quest to Identity

I’m often in a place of retrospection. This place helps me to analyze things and puts me in a position to “pick” God’s brain. Through the application of wisdom, I’ve learned when to put down my analytical hat, simply accept and no longer question God’s response.

In February of this year, He brought to mind one of our conversations on IDENTITY + PURPOSE. During this time, I was reminded of some very real frustrations I underwent in both my personal and professional life by not having a mentor.

In life, having someone to help you identify and guide you into your purpose proves invaluable.

When Jesus called the disciples to follow Him, He awakened their individual purposes by identifying and encouraging them to tap into their “true self”. He liberated them from false identities, by showing them who God truly created them to be. He empowered them to become who they were to be, through mentoring. He willingly poured out His virtue to give them the tools they needed to be successful and accomplish their life missions. His students eventually went on to become teachers, repeating this cycle of discipleship [mentorship] with others.

This blueprint gives us a great formula to follow, but situations aren’t always ideal and more often than none “students” get lost in transition. Why? The magnitude of probable answers to this question proves infinite, however, A LACK OF HONOR & THE SPIRIT OF COMPETITION are major culprits.

• In my professional career, I’ve seen people overlooked because their potential didn’t look as promising as that of their peers. How is this related to honor? Honor begins with perception. The level of value you have for something determines how much attention you’ll give it and how much effort you’ll expend on it. A lack of honor will cause you to overlook others, versus nurturing them, without any partiality, into a place of personal fulfillment. A lack of honor will cause you to overlook the gift in someone that could potentially help you. A lack of honor caused Nazareth’s “hometown hero” to be overlooked (Matthew 13:57).

• In my work experience, I’ve also seen the spirit of competition in action. Most workforce environments teach you to compete, so it’s not perplexing to witness someone’s personal development suddenly halt because another is threatened. Threatened by what? Threatened that their efforts and accomplishments may be matched or exceeded by another, but wait, isn’t this is what should happen. Whoever God passes my baton to, should go where I have been and further! We must give no room to the competition or the “crabs in a barrel” complex, that eagerly promotes sabotaging the success of another.

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Okay, so having a not having mentor is bad, but even worst than not having a mentor is not knowing who you are (IDENTITY) and what you were created for (PURPOSE). This can heighten your impressionability and make you more susceptible to manipulation.

As an artist, all my work begins the same way…

• In writing, I start with a fresh document.
• When drawing, I begin with a blank piece of paper.
• When painting, I use a clean canvas.

Starting with nothing, gives me total power and allows me to create whatever I choose.

When we have little or no awareness of our identity, we are like blank canvases or the unwritten pages of a book. We are open for anyone to write our story and anything to paint our identity. Whoever is willing to make a deposit, good or bad, has access.

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THE LONELY LONER

The Bible tells a story of a wanderer named Cain. A wanderer can be described as one who moves about without a definite destination or purpose. He didn’t start off this way and wasn’t born to be a vagabond. Regrettably, he inherited this position after suffering from an identity crisis.

Cain and Abel were creation’s firstborn, begotten from Adam and Eve. Cain was a farmer and his younger brother Abel was a shepherd. One day, they each brought gifts to God. Cain gave produce, while Abel gave some of his best flocks. God rejected Cain’s offering and though the story doesn’t detail the specific reasons why it does make clear that Abel gave his best.

Cain felt dejected and immediately expressed this discontentment in his disposition. God tenderly responded to Cain, this response marks the problem and the solution.

The Lord asked Cain, “Why are you angry? Why does your face look sad? You know that if you do what is right, I will accept you. But if you don’t, sin is ready to attack you. That sin will want to control you, but you must control it.”

Genesis 4:6-7 Easy-to-Read Version

These were words of life. Cain could have used them to pray:

God, what do you want from me? My trade is farming, but I could surely barter to obtain an appropriate sacrifice for You. You said if I do what is right You will accept me, but what is right? Can you show me what is right?

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Cain held the words of God in contempt or as if they had no value. He ignored the warning opting to look inwardly for a resolution and his answer was murder. Cain killed his brother out of pure envy because he desired that acceptance Abel received from God.

Cain had an identity issue. Many of us like Cain, walk around caught up in what others are doing, competing and coveting [desiring what belongs to another] because we don’t know who we are and/or have no confidence in who God has created us to be. We must learn to accept who we are and remain open to God’s instructions, knowing they will make us better. When we do this we avoid the deception of sin and its short-lived pleasure.

Seek God. Throughout Biblical history, God teaches us to forsake all and follow Him. Colossians 3:3 teaches us that our real lives [our true identities and total fulfillment] are hidden with Christ in God. If something is hidden that indicates it has to be found and in order for something to be found we must search for it.

When we seek God first, everything begins to fall into place by default because our God sets things in order. So you don’t have to worry about who you are or what your purpose is, He will show you.

You will also discover as you find Him, you will find you.

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Featured Image Photo Credit: Flickr/Anthony Merced