Who am I?

Questions of identity are much in the news.

Behind all the Trojan Horse allegations and enquiries in Birmingham schools lie the deeper questions of identity. 

All teenagers ask the question 'Who am I?', and many are the angst-driven crises that we have all experienced. But if your identity is linked to your culture and religion, and you feel that you don't belong, and that you are seen as a threat to the British way of life, I am not sure that we should be surprised that radical answers emerge from the 'Who am I?' question. 

Neither Michael Gove nor Teresa May seem to understand these deeper identity issues, and I doubt whether David Cameron does either. Everything is presented as a political issue of one sort or another.

But all of us face the same question, 'Who am I?' How we answer will determine what we do with our lives.

And Jesus also faced the same question, and we discover that his inner security came from his understanding exactly who he was.

'One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”(Mark 1.9-11)

As we see, right at the start of his public ministry, Jesus is reminded by the outpouring of the Spirit, and the voice of his heavenly Father of his own identity. Instead of being caught in a tortuous crisis of being unsure of his answer to the 'Who am I?' question, he knows for sure that he is the dearly loved Son. That security about his own identity enabled him to live a life or service and risk, as he nothing to prove. Much of our own unwillingness to live like Jesus emerges because we are deeply insecure.

All of us need to know that we are dearly loved children of God. 

If we are deeply secure in that understanding of ourselves, then we, like Jesus, can learn to keep close to Jesus, with his life flowing to us and through us. '“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.' (John 15.5)

Then others are blessed, and God is glorified, which would be good.

Best wishes,

Richard