Who are you?

What is your identity? What is my identity? Who am I? I'm a son. I'm a brother. I'm Northern Irish. A citizen of the UK. I'm a male. I'm white. I'm a Christian. I'm a member of the Presbyterian Church. I'm a youth minister.  

These are all part of my identity. Yet they don't satisfy me. To me they all seem fragile, and all temporary. I am what they call "a people person". I consider that to be part of my identity. It comes closer to satisfying me, because it speaks of who I really am. It speaks of something more than just labels and categories. Yet even then I ask myself, why am I a people person? How did I get this way? Am I simply a product of my past, of situations and influences?  

In preparing to speak to a group of Christians at Brentwood High School this morning, I realised something that was at the heart of my decision to follow Jesus. In fact that phrase doesn't satisfy what truly happened when I was 12. I wasn't just deciding to follow Jesus, I was giving my life to Jesus. I feel uncomfortable using that phrase because it's seen as religious cliche, but to put it any other way would be to dumb down the significance of that encounter with Jesus. His love displayed in its fullness on the cross, the giving of His life as a display of love, compelled me to do the same in return. I remember praying those words, that I wanted to give my life to Him because He gave His for mine. I can't remember if I knew the verse at the time, but I was praying 1 Corinthians 6:19/20:

"you are not your own... you have been bought at a price"

I believe that this changed my life, because it shifted my identity from flags, characteristics, sports, talents and labels, to something much greater and much more satisfying. My identity is in Jesus.   

Why is that significant? Because my deepest desire is to know who I truly am. And the labels, the categories and even the characteristics, only portray a limited and restricted perspective. They are all bound within the limits of time. But in Jesus, I understand that I have a purpose, and an existence beyond the limits of time. In Jesus I understand that I was created by a God, and that He wants to interact with me. In Jesus I understand my brokenness, and that I live in a broken world. In Jesus I understand that I was meant to experience life in its fullness. In Jesus I understand that I am worth dying for.   

Of all the earthly labels that I have, I think 2 of the most dangerous are probably "Christian" and "youth minister". They are the 2 that most regularly lead me from what my true identity is. Sometimes I deceive myself thinking that these labels mean that I'm sorted. When I'm satisfied by these labels, I'm distracted from my daily need and desire to be satisfied by the living Jesus. Like John 15 describes, life flows from the vine, and if we disconnect ourselves from it, we wither and die.   

You are not your own, you were bought at a price.   

It's an identity that satisfies my deepest longing. It's in Jesus.