Reflection: Identity

In our development from childhood to adulthood, there is a reciprocal relationship between understanding and living into our identity and our ability to move from dependent to interdependent beings that pushes us forward in our development.  From the time we begin to form sentences, we show our will for independence.  Listen to any two year old, and you will here “I do it myself!”  We have this idea that what makes us truly human and truly valuable is this ability to do everything for ourselves.  (Isn’t that how sin entered the world?)  This is the struggle of adolescence.  At the root of all arguments between parent and child is the child’s will to gain independence and the parent’s hesitance to let go.  In the same way, at the root of all sin is the child’s will to be independent (choosing his or her own will over God’s) and the Father’s perfect presence through it all.  We defiantly declare to God and to the world, “I do it myself!”  (Can it be any clearer how much like petulant children we sound when we sin?) 

In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul explains that in Christ we have a brand new identity.  We are reconciled to God; however, living into this reconciliation does not come through our ability to do anything on our own.  It comes solely by relying on (depending on) the sinless One who took on our sin.  We must understand that we cannot do it alone because we were never intended to do it alone.  Once we understand that we do not define our own identity, but that our identity is Christ, then we become whole in him.  The goal is not independence, but it is dependence on Christ and interdependence with his Church. 

So, where are you on this spectrum?  Are you dependent on God and interdependent with his people?  Or, are you in the adolescent fight for your life, struggling for independence? 

May you be reconciled to God and come to know peace through your identity in Christ.