{"id":5889,"date":"2023-12-23T17:10:14","date_gmt":"2023-12-24T00:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/?p=5889"},"modified":"2023-12-23T17:10:14","modified_gmt":"2023-12-24T00:10:14","slug":"who-are-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2023\/12\/who-are-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Who are you?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Who are you?<\/p>\n

Deep into life identity is a challenge for all of us.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know anyone who escapes that challenge.\u00a0 And for many people it is a source of real struggle and no small amount of anxiety deep into life.<\/p>\n

Identity is also a challenge that reinvents itself. Even after we have made the choices that most of us identify with settling into adulthood \u2013 finding a spouse, getting a job \u2013 the questions of identity surface and resurface.<\/p>\n

There are endless reasons for this struggle.\u00a0 Insecurity is part of the struggle \u2013 the differences between what we assume we will be doing, and the reality itself \u2013 perfectionism that holds us to a standard we can\u2019t fulfill \u2013 changes in fortune, including job loss, illness, and even retirement.<\/p>\n

This endless quest for significance can also engender insecurity.\u00a0 After I lived and worked in Washington for a time at the National Cathedral, I told a friend, \u201cNo one in this town wants the job that they have.\u00a0 Priests want to be Deans of Cathedrals, Cathedral Deans want to be Bishops.\u00a0 Congressmen want to be Senators and Senators want to be President.<\/p>\n

But \u2013 in ways that are profoundly destructive \u2013 I think it can also be argued that the struggle with identity has become the defining struggle of the late 20th and early 21st century, particularly in the so-called developed world.\u00a0 There are a number of factors that are driving this development.<\/p>\n

One has been the extent to which post-modern assumptions have undermined the confidence that there are any God-given characteristics to life.\u00a0 Arguing that identity is endlessly malleable and entirely in our control, our culture post-modern philosophy suggested that there is nothing so basic to our being that we cannot reinvent.\u00a0 And \u2013 in so doing, has burdened us ways that we don\u2019t yet appreciate.\u00a0 But rising suicide rates, surveys that measure basic happiness, and the social dislocation that messaging of this kind has helped create suggests that we are headed no place good.<\/p>\n

Our prosperity and isolation from one another is a second factor.\u00a0 The only thing worse than being told that your identity is entirely up to you, is being told that you have all the time available to you to devote to that task.\u00a0 Done in isolation from others and without an obligation to help or care for others, the notion that life\u2019s task is self-definition is \u2013 in and of itself \u2013 crazy making.\u00a0 The supposedly endless choices, the absence of guidance or feedback and the absence of an obligation to care for others constitute a dangerous cocktail of loneliness.<\/p>\n

The third factor is social media.\u00a0 Here me carefully here, I am not opposed to social media across the board, and I recognize the real value of the community that it offers us.\u00a0 But \u2013 as study after study demonstrates \u2013 without grounding in flesh and blood relationships and spiritual balance that equips us to test the value of what we find there, social media can focus the other dynamics I have mentioned destructive force.\u00a0 Bullies who once inflicted pain on one or two other people can now attack and isolate hundreds of people.\u00a0 Profiles can be edited to suggest that certain ways of living and behaving can be pursued without consequences.\u00a0 And people who already struggle with their own self-worth can be reduced to ash.<\/p>\n

The American Psychological Association<\/a> notes that \u201cusing social media is not inherently beneficial or <\/em>harmful to young people.\u201d\u00a0 But studies<\/a> have shown that \u201cnear\u00adly\u00a02\u00a0in\u00a03\u00a0ado\u00adles\u00adcents are\u00a0\u200b\u2018often\u2019 or\u00a0\u200b\u2018some\u00adtimes\u2019 exposed to hate-based con\u00adtent on social media.\u201d\u00a0 There is a measurable \u201ccon\u00adnec\u00adtion between social media cyber\u00adbul\u00adly\u00ading and depres\u00adsion among young people.\u201d\u00a0 And \u201cteen girls and\u00a0LGBTQ\u00a0youth are \u2013 in particular \u2013 more like\u00adly to expe\u00adri\u00adence cyber\u00adbul\u00adly\u00ading and online harass\u00adment.\u201d<\/p>\n

These issues have been on my mind this Advent.\u00a0 And they were front and center when I preached on John the Baptist this year (Jn 1:6-8, 19-28).\u00a0 The lines in Fourth Gospel about John might seem to be a long way from the modern quest for identity, and in one way, of course they are.<\/p>\n

The priests and Levites are trying to sort out why John is calling people to repent and baptizing them.\u00a0 They are trying to sort out how his ministry fits into the varied schemas of ancient prophetic hope and expectation.\u00a0 And \u2013 in the midst of a volatile religious climate \u2013 they are trying to sort out what, if any claims John may be making to Messianic authority.\u00a0 And John responds to those questions, distinguishing his own role from the Messiah and the difference between his baptism and the baptism that Jesus will eventually make possible.<\/p>\n

But in the season of Advent, when we are rightly attuned \u2013 not only to the promises of God \u2013 but to the state of our own lives and hearts, I think it is also worth attending to the way in which John arrived at his own sense of identity.\u00a0 The assumptions that guide him, I think, provide an antidote to modern, post-modern confusion we experience on the subject.<\/p>\n

For the sake of clarity, let me describe what grounds John\u2019s sense of who he is, as two guiding principles:<\/p>\n

The first principle is the most basic: John knows who he is because he belongs to God.<\/em><\/p>\n

The difference between a world with God and a world without God is as basic a difference in world view that there is.\u00a0 And there is a world of difference between belonging to God and being without God.<\/p>\n

In a world without God, identity is perpetually up for up for grabs.\u00a0 There is no point of reference beyond ourselves and beyond the judgment of others.\u00a0 One can either live a life in perpetual fear that we are not what we should be and endlessly open ourselves to the opinion of others \u2013 or<\/em> we can resist the world\u2019s criticism by simply insisting that we can\u2019t possibly be wrong.<\/p>\n

But when we navigate life without God, there is no way of being certain of who we are or why we are here; and \u2013 even if we can carve out some temporary certainty about who we are and what we stand for, there is no future beyond the grave.\u00a0 This is why the \u201cnew atheists\u201d, unlike the old atheists, have been at pains to argue that there is a biological and evolutionary reason for morality.\u00a0 It is not easy to live with the conviction of atheists like Nietzsche that there is nothing in the world that matters except the will to exert power.<\/p>\n

But when we say that \u2013 like John \u2013 our identity is grounded in the knowledge that we belong to God, it is also important to remember what this means.\u00a0 It is not about life on a knife\u2019s edge or about getting our performance right: following commandments and avoiding sins.<\/p>\n

Without suggesting that the commandments aren\u2019t important, the far more basic choice is one of belonging to God, of being in relationship with God.\u00a0 And God\u2019s desire and longing is focused on nurturing that relationship with us.\u00a0 Our understanding of who we are and how we should live flows from that relationship.<\/p>\n

The second principle that guides John is that he finds his place in God\u2019s work.<\/em><\/p>\n

When we ask ourselves, what is God\u2019s will for me, more often than not we ask ourselves, \u201cWhat does God want me<\/em> to do?\u201d\u00a0 And that is a natural way of framing the question.<\/p>\n

But in the history of the church\u2019s spiritual quest, the prior and more important question is, \u201cWhat is God doing?\u201d\u00a0 In fact, that question is at the heart of the spiritual practice that the church calls \u201cthe practice of discernment\u201d.<\/p>\n

When John \u2013 and later, the disciples \u2013 asked themselves who they were in the \u201ceconomy\u201d or \u201cwork\u201d of God, they first asked themselves what God was doing in and through Jesus \u2013\u00a0\u00a0 what God cared about, what God was trying to accomplish, and what place they were assigned in God\u2019s work.\u00a0 And on that basis, they prayed about how they could contribute to what God was doing.<\/p>\n

To understand ourselves as participants in the work of God has important implications that are visible in John\u2019s responses to his detractors:<\/p>\n