Identity
Growing up there was nothing like a good kung fu movie. More so there were few that could compare to a kung movie with Jackie Chan. As common as the storylines of those movies were, one of my favorites zeroed around Jackie’s character losing his memory. He spent the majority of the movie wondering who he was. The iconic scene with him frustrated and screaming from the mountain “WHO AM I!?” was and is strangely absolutely relatable.
In my work as a therapist and pastor this question of identity comes up often. I find it prevalent among coming of age teenagers but I believe the question is just as common in early adulthood and frankly now into adulthood. Such existential questions can travel far into adulthood if you are inquisitive and restless enough. The desire to reinvent or find meaning in your current stage of life is a common struggle. I wish this post had answers or a quick fix but i’ll tell right now it doesn’t and I think that’s the point.
Identity is something that we are rooted in with the knowledge about what God says about us. Consider 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here and Galatians 3:26-27 "So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ...", both and many other verses remind us that we are new and in Christ Jesus. That knowledge is implanted in our minds but our fickle hearts struggle with that truth. So often we can have experiences that cause us to try to find identity in other worldly things. Consider the aging young adult struggling to find their place among peers who are getting married, who are they if they aren’t married? Consider the father or mother with little ones who embrace parenthood but struggle with a desire to keep up with others, they buy stuff, chase image, in order to appear better off than they really are. Without the right house, the new car then who are they? The struggle is real and worldly solutions are abundant.
I don’t believe the solution is the absence of questioning who we are. But I do believe the solution is in being aware of the struggle. It’s okay to continue to ask who you are, because in that process you can actively engage in the work that needs to be completed to fully understand our identity and to refine ourselves in the image of God. The truth is the process never stops and we are in continual growth. We will be growing forever in our identity in Christ, until Christ returns and we are made whole again. The process, the sitting in the questions, is special and makes us inquisitive children at God’s feet.
So the next time you find yourself on a mountain screaming “Who am I?” I would remind you that you are one that climbs mountains and screams at the top of their lungs, and Jesus loves you nonetheless.