What is Your Identity?
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
"He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." 1 John 4: 7,8
Struck me today that people are identifying themselves and each other by their skin color or their sexual orientation or their drug of choice or their career or their accomplishments or their appearance or their political persuasion or their musical preference or their favorite hobby or their favorite form of entertainment or their favorite author or ... you name it...and we should be identifying ourselves and others with regard to the PERSON inside. We always look at the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.
We identify people by their age, their marital status, their weight, their talent, whether they are "successful" or not, how much money they have, what kind of jeans they wear, whether or not they've had a boob job, whether they "look their age" or not. Even after they're dead we look inside the casket and make a determination about whether they "look good" or not...you know?
It doesn't matter about any of that stuff. I mean obviously there are things we have to deal with like looking the "best we can," etc., and we all grow old if we don't die young (that's profound, isn't it?) but occurs to me we are all of us looking at the surface of things.
I read an interesting thought in Walden the other day. He said Christianity had decided to "camp out on earth, and forgotten heaven." Does this ring a bell, anyone? I confess, I've been obsessed about my weight and my hair for as long as I can remember. And God is very merciful to all of us in the many ways we fall short. And maybe some things aren't so bad. But my point is...
What should our IDENTITY be? I am afraid I don't really get the compulsion to be identified by sexual orientation, for example, and even calling it "pride." I understand wanting to be accepted. And arguing our point of view about whether it is a "choice" or not is not even the point. The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 2:15 -17:
"Love not the world or the things in the world.If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him.
"For all that is in the world -- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life -- is not of the Father but is of the world.
And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever."
As the darkness keeps getting darker, may our light shine keep shining brighter.
"He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." 1 John 4: 7,8
Struck me today that people are identifying themselves and each other by their skin color or their sexual orientation or their drug of choice or their career or their accomplishments or their appearance or their political persuasion or their musical preference or their favorite hobby or their favorite form of entertainment or their favorite author or ... you name it...and we should be identifying ourselves and others with regard to the PERSON inside. We always look at the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.
We identify people by their age, their marital status, their weight, their talent, whether they are "successful" or not, how much money they have, what kind of jeans they wear, whether or not they've had a boob job, whether they "look their age" or not. Even after they're dead we look inside the casket and make a determination about whether they "look good" or not...you know?
It doesn't matter about any of that stuff. I mean obviously there are things we have to deal with like looking the "best we can," etc., and we all grow old if we don't die young (that's profound, isn't it?) but occurs to me we are all of us looking at the surface of things.
I read an interesting thought in Walden the other day. He said Christianity had decided to "camp out on earth, and forgotten heaven." Does this ring a bell, anyone? I confess, I've been obsessed about my weight and my hair for as long as I can remember. And God is very merciful to all of us in the many ways we fall short. And maybe some things aren't so bad. But my point is...
What should our IDENTITY be? I am afraid I don't really get the compulsion to be identified by sexual orientation, for example, and even calling it "pride." I understand wanting to be accepted. And arguing our point of view about whether it is a "choice" or not is not even the point. The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 2:15 -17:
"Love not the world or the things in the world.If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him.
"For all that is in the world -- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life -- is not of the Father but is of the world.
And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever."
As the darkness keeps getting darker, may our light shine keep shining brighter.
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