FollowWe tend to form our identity based on the outcomes of our lives. Our outcomes will push us, like so much toothpaste through a tube, onward down, or diverting away from, the pathway we are upon. Our “outcomes” are those positive and negative experiences we enjoy and endure. These are the benefits of well-planned decisions and the “natural consequences” of actions or indecisions.
There are many ways to play this out. Some opt for an achievement-driven lifestyle stuffed full of trophies and accolades. Others grow accustomed to playing “fireman” over a myriad of life’s burning issues. Still others arrive in retreat mode, recoiling from difficulty and seeking out a listening ear into which to pour troubles or locating a vice or diversion to numb the feeling of disillusionment at what life was “supposed” to be.
Whenever one of the above patterns (or another variety not mentioned here) takes hold in our lives we place too much emphasis on the importance of outcomes to guide what we believe about our identity. This forms a circle of belief, decision, action, consequence, belief, decision, action consequence … etc., rolling along until a cliff or boulder comes our way. It’s often the trauma of one or the other that brings us face-to-face with the unsustainability of living outside of our TRUE identity.
I cannot hope to provide a comprehensive remedy to this problem in one sitting. What I can do is secure you in the knowledge that, if you find the above familiar territory, you are in well-traveled country. You are in company among us journeying forward to understanding, embracing, and living in (and out of) our identity in Jesus Christ.
I leave you, for the moment, with a question: “Will you be defined by a temporal outcome you have recently experienced, or will you determine to embrace an eternal identity as described by God Himself?”
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