Identity First
In order to live as “Inside Out People” I think we must first answer the questions that surround our identity. The question of identity is a big one – Who am I? Why am I here? What is my place in this world? For Christians the question becomes even more involved – Who am I in Christ? What purpose does God have for me? How does my existence further Gods plans? For me sometimes these questions seem mutually exclusive, but they’re not. I’ve wrestled with these questions for what seems like my entire life, and every time I think that I come close to some sort of answer, something happens that tends to change my mind.
In college I ended up with a major in philosophy. I didn’t set out to do it; it just sort of ended up that way. I just kept taking class after class because it fascinated me. Philosophy was about people spending their whole lives trying to figure out what life was about. It struck me as ironic in a way. And after taking all those classes and reading all those books by: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hume, Marx Pascal, and countless others, what struck me was that none of them came up with the answers. Some of them thought they did, but somebody always came along to argue with what the one before had said. What all that studying of philosophy did for me was make me realize that these “identity” questions are not easy questions to answer. So what I have done is accept that those questions – Who am I? Who am I in Christ? Etc. are continuous and endless. They are indeed philosophical pursuits, which are meant to be looked at and evaluated again and again with drawn conclusions changing and growing with each new experience.
I have attended Calvary Church all my life, and have grown up in a Christian home, but I have also wrestled with my own personal emotional and mental challenges which have sometimes kept me at odds with God. Now in my late 20’s I feel like it has been only recently that I have truly began to ask what having Christ in my life means for my identity and for my purpose here on earth. I hope to share my experiences as I continue to examine my identity and what it means to live “inside out.”