In the career readiness class I teach at high school, my students have been creating résumés which they will use to get jobs or scholarships. Many of them have never prepared a brief introduction of themselves which summarizes their education, skills, work experience, and interests. I enjoy getting to know them a little better through this reflective process as they ask themselves who am I? In other words, is their identity or yours found in how you look or the color of your skin? Is it in who you know or are connected to or where you are from? Is it in what know, what you have done, what you do, or what you can do? Is it in where you live, what you own, or how you are regarded by others? These certainly affect who you are, but they are secondary factors. Your identity is found in God who created you and loves you. Only with God will you find who you are truly meant to be.
The problem every person faces is that left to ourselves, we reject God in favor of living life on our own terms. Yet, it doesn’t work. On your own, you cannot become all you were meant to be. Not only that, but trying to achieve self-fulfillment ends in death. Fortunately, God knows this and he has a better plan. He is calling you to himself. When you respond in faith he opens your eyes to not only who you are, but who you are meant to be. Over time as you trust and obey him, he utilizes your personality, skills, circumstances, trials, shortcomings, relationships, and experiences to transform you into that.
No matter how you identify or evaluate yourself or how others do, God wants to meet you where you are and make you better through Jesus. God knows you are deceived, sinful, broken, separated, and destined to die. That is why Jesus came—to save you. When Jesus, God the Son, became a man and ministered on earth, he woke people from their self-centered slumber. He brought the light of his truth to their darkened minds. He told them life is not found in status, power, knowledge, aptitude, pleasures, or possessions. Life is found in knowing God. Jesus proclaimed this to everyone, he taught those who listened, and he trained those who responded. Jesus sought out the poor in spirit, the broken, the lost, the least, the last, and the outcast. He showed everyone that they are seen and known by God, they are unique, they are eternal, they are valuable, they are loved, and they are worth dying for. Jesus died and rose again to save you from yourself and to give you new life in him.
The greatest challenge, adventure, and blessing in life is becoming who you are meant to be in Jesus. Trust and obey Jesus through his Spirit and you will see clearly, you will be freed from self striving, and you will be saved from eternal torment in hell. That is how the apostle Paul described the confidence and hope believers have. “But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:16-18). Only with God are you free to become who you were designed to be. Submit every aspect of your life to Jesus and he will bring healing to every aspect of your life. In the process, you will discover your true identity, your unsurpassed joy, and your glorious destiny with God.