Identity

I had a lovely opportunity to minister to high school students at their assembly the other morning. I shared with them something I’ve been sharing with most of the pupils I get an opportunity to speak to. Identity. The Oxford dictionary defines identity as ‘who or what somebody or something is.’ I like the ‘who’ rather than the ‘what’ because in my head the ‘what’ a person is is a by product of ‘who’ they are.

"God said to Moses, 'I am who I am..."Exodus 3:14

The one thing we commonly use to identify one another is our names. But our names aren’t unique to us (which identity should be); there are so many other Gugu Ndlovu’s out there, just type in your name on the FB search engine and see. When we don’t know someone’s name, we identify them by their physical appearance...that really tall girl, that very dark fat guy, that white lady with the long nose, you know that Indian man with the bald head. And at times we will identify each other with our actions, past or present…that one who cheated on his wife, that one who fell pregnant by her boss, that one who works at the bank, and my favourite, that one who talks a lot. But none of these things are our identity; none of them speak of who we are, who we’re made to be.

Firstly, identity is internal and not external and therefore cannot be defined by external factors such as your name, your gender, your nationality or your race. And because it’s internal, it also can’t be changed by external factors such as my mistakes and bad choices. I am who I am regardless of what I’ve done. I like Jacob when it comes to this point. From birth, he was identified and even named after his actions (and that’s another thing, your identity is on the basis of who you come from and not who you came through):

“After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.” [Jacob means he grasps the heel – figuratively, he deceives] Genesis 25:26

And as much as Jacob did grow up with a deceptive character, it is not who God had intended him to be, God had spoken about him before his parents even met him, while still in his momma’s belly, jostling with his brother, God spoke about him saying:

“…one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.” Genesis 25:23

This is Jacob’s true identity; a strong man, a leader. I strongly believe this is why God renamed him to Israel when Jacob started living out who he was truly meant to be (CF Genesis 32: 27-28). His family and peers knew him as a deceiver, he lied his way into getting a blessing and as a result lived life on the run…but in God’s eyes this was the next heir of the greatest blessing ever spoken over a man, he was the last member of the foundation of the patriarchs’, he was the one the nation God chose and loved would be named after.

And this is true about all of us and not just Jacob, God spoke the reason for our existence before we were even a thought to our parents, remember what he revealed to Jeremiah…

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew [chose] you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5

By birth, Jeremiah was a priest and was supposed to serve as one when his time came, but that was not what God had intended, because God is not bound to think they way we do.

It is therefore a given that my identity can only be revealed and nurtured through my relationship with the One I come from. And it’s my identity, and not my abilities, which should determine my destiny. I thought of Ruth at this point. She was a foreigner and young widow when she met with God. God then revealed to her who she was, not a helpless and hopeless young woman with no direction in life, but a wise, brave and strong young woman who was meant to be the channel through which would come the grandfather of the greatest King that ever lived; she was designed to be in the lineage of Christ, an example and role model to the many women who’d read her story in years to come.

So the ball is in my court to find out who I really am and what I’m here to do, regardless of the things I’ve done and those I’ve failed to do, regardless of who I thought I was all along. It’s not too late to find yourself, it’s not too late to live a happy and fulfilling life by being exactly who you were intended to be.

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." Psalm 139:13