{"id":2011,"date":"2015-06-15T05:31:53","date_gmt":"2015-06-15T11:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/?p=2011"},"modified":"2015-06-15T05:31:53","modified_gmt":"2015-06-15T11:31:53","slug":"pick-your-person-can-you-really-self-identify","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/pick-your-person-can-you-really-self-identify\/","title":{"rendered":"Pick your person: Can you really self-identify a different reality?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"As an adolescent boy I remember watching the Olympics for the first time on our small television with the rabbit ears that had to be pointed in-just-the-right-direction. Winning medal after medal,\u00a0\u00a0my hero<\/a> was a man\u2019s man.<\/p>\n

Now, he says he no longer wants to identify with his physical makeup. He \u201cself-identifies\u201d as a woman.<\/p>\n

And yesterday I read <\/a>of a woman who is \u201cself identifying\u201d as a different race in order to obtain jobs and standing as a minority.<\/p>\n

These two are personifying a greater trend. We are living in a time when fantasy is the new reality. \u00a0We are allowing people to deny science, fact, and \u00a0truth and simply accept and identify with whatever they\u2019ve created.<\/p>\n

My own reality<\/h2>\n

I\u2019m sorry, but there are some things we cannot self-identify. You are what you are. I am what I am.<\/p>\n

I cannot self identify to be a 12 year-old boy, just so I can get a discount at the movie theater. I cannot self-identify to be handicapped so I get a close-in parking spot. I cannot self identify as Royalty and live in the Queen\u2019s palace.<\/p>\n

I have to deal with my reality.<\/p>\n

There are some things about my physical appearance\u00a0I wish I could change. I dislike the 20 pounds I seem to have carried my whole life. My chin is sharp and my eyes are narrow. I cannot self identify as a Tom Cruise<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I am also a cheater, a liar, a self-promoter, and a manipulator, having taken on those roles and sins at one point or another in my life. For extended periods of my life, I\u2019ve been a bad friend, husband, father, brother, and son. I cannot self-identify as a spotless man.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a way out<\/h2>\n

But there\u2019s a way I can slip out of this reality and take on another identity:<\/p>\n

Colossians 1. 21-22 says this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a>\u201cAnd you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.\u201d<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

I\u2019m not stuck with all the labels that others have draped over my head. I\u2019m a realist, but I have found tremendous freedom in this Christ-identity.<\/p>\n

I feel sorry for these people and every other person who loathes themselves so much that they feel the need to create an alternate personhood. But there are deeper things going on, things that have need a Savior\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

I want to tell them there is an out, a way to change who they they think they are.<\/p>\n

Let it go.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

Let it go.<\/em><\/p>\n

Take on Jesus and let him create a new you. \u00a0Holy. Blameless. Perfect.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As an adolescent boy I remember watching the Olympics for the first time on our small television with the rabbit ears that had to be pointed in-just-the-right-direction. Winning medal after medal,\u00a0\u00a0my hero was a man\u2019s man. Now, he says he no longer wants to identify with his physical makeup. He \u201cself-identifies\u201d as a woman. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1052,1056,1322,1539],"class_list":["post-2011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bruce-jenner","tag-caitlin","tag-spokane","tag-washington"],"yoast_head":"\nPick your person: Can you really self-identify a different reality?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We are living in a time when fantasy is the new reality. 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