Wednesday, September 23, 2009
" ... and what do you do?
Ex 3:16 "I am"
We all want to be something.
When someone meets you they eventually ask "and what do you do?" In other words, "what are you?" or "what's your identity?" or "how do I categorize you?"
I am a small business owner. I am a father, a husband, a homeowner. Or I am a nurse, contractor, pastor ... etc.
Paul Tripp has a good segment in the Grief Share video about identity. "I am a depressed person." or "I am a grieving person." Grief or depression are not to be an identity. How different it sounds rather than saying "I am a depressed person," to say "I am a child of the King, born again unto new life ... and, by the way, I struggle greatly with depression."
Although he applies it to a negative identity, I need to apply it to a positive identity as well. Sure, I have my own company and I do surveys for non-profits. Yet my identity needs to be found in the Great I Am. "Who should I say sent me?" "I AM" was the answer. What is He? What does He do?
There's a multitude of answers: redeemer, savior, way, truth, life, provider, protector ... but the bottom line = His identity is I AM. God wants me to find my identity in Him, not in what I do. ("and you are complete in Him ...") What I do is secondary at best. What do I do? I seek to know God, and I also have my own company.
Blackaby says "He is far more concerned that you know Him than that you know your abilities. The world tells us to affirm self, God tells us to deny self. Your identity and self-worth are found not in your abilities, but in your relationship to Christ."
That's so hard for me to actually digest. It would seem so pious and hypocritical to answer someone's "and what do you do?" with: "I seek to know Christ, and I also have my own company ..." So, LORD, help me affirm that identity with You, knowing that the world would never take that answer the right way.
Well, I take that back - I think that, delivered the right way, in the right context, it could sound genuine and not phony. Maybe something like "You want the canned answer or the real answer?" "Real? - I seek with all my life to know Christ. For a living I do surveys for non-profits." I'll have to try that some time.
We all want to be something.
When someone meets you they eventually ask "and what do you do?" In other words, "what are you?" or "what's your identity?" or "how do I categorize you?"
I am a small business owner. I am a father, a husband, a homeowner. Or I am a nurse, contractor, pastor ... etc.
Paul Tripp has a good segment in the Grief Share video about identity. "I am a depressed person." or "I am a grieving person." Grief or depression are not to be an identity. How different it sounds rather than saying "I am a depressed person," to say "I am a child of the King, born again unto new life ... and, by the way, I struggle greatly with depression."
Although he applies it to a negative identity, I need to apply it to a positive identity as well. Sure, I have my own company and I do surveys for non-profits. Yet my identity needs to be found in the Great I Am. "Who should I say sent me?" "I AM" was the answer. What is He? What does He do?
There's a multitude of answers: redeemer, savior, way, truth, life, provider, protector ... but the bottom line = His identity is I AM. God wants me to find my identity in Him, not in what I do. ("and you are complete in Him ...") What I do is secondary at best. What do I do? I seek to know God, and I also have my own company.
Blackaby says "He is far more concerned that you know Him than that you know your abilities. The world tells us to affirm self, God tells us to deny self. Your identity and self-worth are found not in your abilities, but in your relationship to Christ."
That's so hard for me to actually digest. It would seem so pious and hypocritical to answer someone's "and what do you do?" with: "I seek to know Christ, and I also have my own company ..." So, LORD, help me affirm that identity with You, knowing that the world would never take that answer the right way.
Well, I take that back - I think that, delivered the right way, in the right context, it could sound genuine and not phony. Maybe something like "You want the canned answer or the real answer?" "Real? - I seek with all my life to know Christ. For a living I do surveys for non-profits." I'll have to try that some time.
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