The Question of Identity

This past week, I showed up at friends’ speech and debate tournament and surprised everyone. (It was so much fun to see them all again–plus they’re all amazing at speech-making and debating too.) Anyway, I actually watched various friends do different things (instead of just watching HI [humorous improvisation for those who aren’t familiar with the terms]). One of them was speech impromptu (really mind-blowing when you watch people who are really good at it.) and so they had to write a speech during two and a half minutes based off of this quote. Let’s just say I was inspired to do something similar for this post based off of the same quote. Unfortunately, I cannot remember who said this quote, so I’m marking it as anonymous.

“When I know who I am, then I will be free.” ~ Anonymous

I agree with this quote because once I know who I am, what I am, and what I am going to be, then I am free from any doubt as to what my identity is and what I am supposed to be. Especially in these days, many people struggle with this. Self-doubt plays a huge role, of course, but there’s still the trouble of identity. People want to stand out from the billions of other people in the world. They want to stand out from the mass of unnamed faces. It’s called identity, and many people have created strange twists to it that have not helped this issue at all. I am going to examine this under two points. First, what the world’s identity often is, and secondly, what our Christian identity is–in other words, who we are in Christ.

Point 1. Finding Identity in the World

This world has a population that numbers around 7–8 billion people. Trying to stand out in a crowd that vast is pretty much impossible unless you’ve become very creative in making ways to do so. However, unfortunately, some of these ways have only worsened the situation. Let’s call to mind the rise of gender identity.

A couple decades ago, this wasn’t the issue everyone believes it is today. If you were born a boy, then you were a boy. And if you were born a girl, then you were a girl. Simple, right? But when people started to question part of our unchangeable and fundamental makeup, things got complicated quickly. Now, at this present moment, there are seventy-two different gender identifications. Crazy, isn’t it? You go from knowing that you’re either born a boy or a girl to your gender being pretty much whatever you want it to be and enforcing other people to comply with it. It gets even harder with transgender or gender fluids because it’s constantly changing. In a moment, the words boy, girl, man, woman, etc.–not to mention pronouns–have suddenly lost their meaning in this new craze. However, while some people think this has made life all the more simpler, it hasn’t.

People are now in a state of confusion. If something that has been unchangeable for so long is now able to be changed on a whim, then there’s no concrete anything in life. If I can change my gender, then I can change pretty much everything about myself, including my ethnic background. There’s nothing firm anymore. People are confused, just like the Bible says more than once about this issue. They are confused, and this confusion often turns to worry; fear about whether your current gender is the right one. Suicide rates are very high among LGTBQ+ people–something that doesn’t quite make sense considering that that movement is supposed to make you feel more free, more at peace with your true self.

Now let me move on to my second point.

Point 2. Finding Identity in Christ

It’s pretty easy to get lost in this world. And I don’t just mean literally. There are so many possibilities for people, so many different occupations. And when you don’t know exactly who or what you want to be, it gets tricky. Especially when you have skills in more than one area.

But that is what is so freeing about the life of a Christian. There is no longer this confusion, this endless wondering about whether or not you are who you’re supposed to be. Granted, we’re all sinners and we will still struggle with that regardless, but things have changed. It’s no longer you vs. the world.

When you embrace God for Who He is and what He’s done for you, things get turned upside down. Your life is literally changed forever. You no longer are just you. You are a member of God’s church, you are one of His “chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called.” — 1 Peter 2:9. When we know who we are in Christ, we then know how we must live our lives according to His will. We no longer have to worry about whether we should be this or we should be that because when our identity is founded upon Christ, we have a permanent identity that can never change.

In conclusion, the world’s identity is trendy and constantly changing. It’s not secure, and you can easily loose it. However, if we place our identity in Christ, who is forever, then we are secure in His love and in who we are as God’s people.

I hope you guys found this helpful! Please, if you have any suggestions for future blog posts, feel free to comment them below! I’m thinking about doing a series about writing-related stuff sometime so any suggestions are welcome. 🙂

Until next time,

~ Gwyn

If you would like to read more on this issue, here’s another good article that I got some of my information from. The One I Didn’t Really Want to Write