“But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God” John 1:12
I recently enjoyed visiting a somewhat obscure, fascinating military museum in our area. The North Carolina Military History Museum at Fort Fisher, NC, is brimming with artifacts from North Carolina’s rich military history. The artful display of uniforms, weapons, and equipment transports visitors back in time to an era that defined this country. Most of the treasures were donated by family members, and the pictures and stories of the owners give the gallery a personal feel. Wandering through the narrow path of belongings and uniforms staged without glass or barriers was somewhat surreal because although touching was discouraged, you could get so close you could smell and see every fiber, nick, and stain.
Dog tags unofficially emerged during the Civil War because soldiers were afraid no one would be able to identify them if they died. They used crude elements to construct their makeshift tags, and the practice stuck. By World War II, military ID tags were considered an official part of the uniform. Dog tags have evolved dramatically from their original unpolished beginnings, but their intent has always remained. I looked at the dog tag’s simplicity and noted the few imprinted elements. That’s all it took to identify a person compared to today’s convoluted, confusing, and controversial trend of “identifying” ourselves. It seems like everyone is searching for something, attaching themselves to some group or movement to define who they are, where they fit in, and how they find relevance in this world. The most prevalent and controversial trend is that one’s identity is fluid.
This trend is the most unsettling and anxiety-producing of them all, in my opinion. I believe that God teaches us where our identity can be found throughout His Word, across all the books, so we can walk through life with inner peace and assurance of where we belong and Who we belong to. The idea of fluidity regarding identity and the endless need to search for identity in external things, such as relationships, feelings, social trends, appearance, jobs, careers, and financial status, reminds me of one of the teachings from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said, “But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash” (Matt 7:26-27). The storms of life, changing trends, a stock market downturn, relationship failure, and job loss all lead to the collapse of one’s identity, and often, the crash causes permanent damage to one’s mental health. The skyrocketing rate of depression and suicide gives evidence of the results of building one’s identity on external sources.
The only solid foundation upon which to build or understand our identities starts with knowing and believing we are children of the Most High God. It begins with understanding who He is, what He says about Himself, and what He says about us. We must look at ourselves through God’s eyes, not what others tell us we are or through our accomplishments, to paint an accurate picture of ourselves. In and through Christ, we are loved, chosen, forgiven, redeemed, and adopted into a new family. We are precious in His sight. He loves us so profoundly because He is God. And that is it! There is no “but,” or “and,” or “if.” God’s love for us is the solid foundation for building our new identities. His love is unshakeable and unconditional and cannot be influenced or go out of trend. Spending time with Him in prayer and study will broaden and solidify our understanding of our new identity. It will become rock solid and not fluid.
If we all truly believed all God says about us and how He feels about us, all the guilt, shame, fear, and unbelief from our lives before accepting Christ and even as Believers would drown in the flood of His love. How would your life change by firmly grabbing hold of your identity in Christ alone? What would you want your dog tag to say? And that’s your Tuesday Tidbit.