The New Creation and the End of Identity Crisis
Rev. Aniekan "Mbomboyo" Okokon ·
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. — Colossians 3:3
The modern world is full of people trying to find themselves. Careers are changed for it, marriages ended for it, continents crossed for it. Underneath the searching is a real ache: the need for a self that is stable, that does not depend on today's performance or yesterday's applause, that will still be there when everything else moves.
The ache is right. The search is in the wrong place. A self that must be found is a self that can be lost. What the believer has is a self that was given, and given things cannot be lost by the one who was given them.
Identity crisis as a spiritual condition
Every identity built on something in this world is built on something that can change. Build it on your work, and a redundancy unmakes you. On your family, and a death or a betrayal does. On your looks, your intelligence, your reputation - each has an expiry date, and somewhere inside you know it. That knowledge is identity crisis, whether or not it ever reaches the surface.
The Gospel's answer is not a stronger version of the same thing. It is a different foundation. Christ is made to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). Everything a self needs, He is, and He does not change.
What ends the crisis
- Location. You are in Christ. That is not a feeling that comes and goes; it is where God has placed you.
- Verdict. You are righteous, accepted, loved. Not because you found it out, but because He declared it.
- Safety. Your life is hidden with Christ in God. Nothing in this world can reach it to take it.
- Future. You will appear with Him in glory. The story is already written to the end.
Living without searching
A person whose identity is settled can afford to be curious about everything else. He can try and fail without collapse, change direction without panic, serve without needing to be seen, and lose without being lost. The energy that went into finding himself is freed for loving God and people.
That is the end of identity crisis: not that you finally found yourself, but that you were found, and placed, and kept. Stop searching. You are in Christ. Start living.