These days we seem to hear a lot about Identity Theft. We see commercials about it all the time on TV: "Do you have Identity Theft protection?" "If your identity is stolen it can be difficult to get back." And on and on, but can anyone "steal" who you are?
You are not your Social Security number, credit card number, bank account number, driver's license number, etc. Identity theft is just a matter of information; it has absolutely nothing to do with identity.
Here are just a couple of definitions about identity: 1.) "the state or fact of remaining the same one, as under varying aspects or conditions" 2.) "the condition of being oneself or itself, and not another." I am who I am and nobody can change that. There are far worse things than having someone "steal my identity" like not knowing who I am in the first place.
That might sound ridiculous to some people, but when you really think about it, how do you really know WHO you are? We've already pointed out that things like Social Security numbers and other forms of documented identification can be stolen, forged, and whatnot so we can't rely on a piece of paper or plastic to tell us who we are.
You have your name, but how many other people have the same name? If you have your name legally changed, does that mean you're a different person? No, your identity goes deeper than just your name.
"Well," you say, "there's my unique personality." Yes, there is that, but even our personality changes over time. As we get older we change the way we think, the way we act (some more than others), but just because my personality changes over time, does that mean I've become a different person?
Some people (especially girls) think their identity is connected to their body. But I can assure you that your identity is not skin-deep. No matter how good anyone looks now, everyone gets old, everyone's body changes and everyone's body eventually decomposes and fades away.
Other people try to answer the question of "Who am I?" with their social status or with what they do. "I'm a businessman," "I'm a doctor," "I'm a police officer," "I'm a baseball player," but what you do does not change who you are. What people say about you does not change who you are. What if an athlete has a career-ending injury? What if a world class singer loses her voice? What if you get fired from your job and end up doing something completely different for a living? Are they no longer the same person if they can't play football, sing an opera, or run the company? No, they remain the same person, they just do different things now.
If our identities are permanent, then in order to find out who we are, we have to look to the one thing in the universe that does not change: God. God made me. I am His child. The world can say whatever it wants about me (good or bad), but no one can change the fact that I am His. The world may not think much of me, but God finds me valuable because I AM HIS CHILD. I should never take that lightly because God certainly doesn't. He loves me because I am His, period. End of story. Nothing else matters.
You too can find your identity in Him. You are also His creation, His child. It's only a matter of whether you are willing to be identified with Him. Are you going to be the teenage daughter who is constantly embarrassed by the things her father does and says, "I'm not with him; that is so not my dad." Or will you be the young child who is so proud of his father that he goes up to everyone saying, "That's my daddy!"
No matter what you say or do, you will always be a child of God, uniquely created by Him for a special purpose. Whether you embrace that identity or reject it is up to you. But if you don't want to be considered among God's children, what alternative do you have left? Who ARE you?
