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"We have to fight the very natural tendency to let our tasks shape who we are. Tasks are temporary and can change like the shifting wind. If we allow tasks to shape our identity then we will spend most of our time trying to figure out who we are."
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 190.
It is such a natural thing for us to turn to what we do when it comes to who we are. I don't think it is a cultural thing more than it is a human thing. Humans seem to be wired to let the view of ourselves and others be shaped by what it is that we do. It is when what we do runs into challenges that identity can be such a complex thing.
I can remember when I was in a place where God had me on hold as far as a career is concerned. For that season, I dreaded meeting someone new in my life. Without fail, it wouldn't be two minutes into a conversation with that new acquaintance, when they would ask - "What do you do for a living?" I wanted to shrink into a corner when I heard those words coming my way. I just didn't know how to answer that question in a way that would allow my identity to be something that I wasn't ashamed of.
That question is such an easy one for us to ask. Somehow we have been conditioned to think that we can determine who a person is by simply hearing what kind of work they choose to do. Sure, a person's occupation says something about who that person is. However, what a person does is but a drop in the bucket when it comes to who that person is. Identity is so much more than just the roles we play.
Today's Bible reading highlights how important identity is when it is based on something other than what we do. Our reading is from Proverbs. It says...
A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value. Proverbs 31:10-11 (NIV)
All you men out there, take heart. This verse is just as much for us as it is for the women our reading seems to be focused upon. The Church is the Bride of Christ. Our "husband" is none other than Jesus Himself. Men and women can read this verse in the context I'm using today as we concentrate on what identity is suppose to be all about.
Our reading says that we are worth more than rubies. It isn't talking about what this person does that makes her valuable. The confidence the husband has in his wife doesn't come with the fact that she is good at what she does. No, her husband is not lacking because her identity is something that empowers the family to be all it can be.
That noble character is something that doesn't come as a result of successfully working a task to its end. Character comes as one lives out who they are in a world that tries to get us to compromise on what our identity is suppose to be all about. If we allow roles to be the defining factor when it comes to identity, then character is so hard to nail down. Since roles change, identity will change as well. Shifting identities is the exact opposite of what it takes to make character something we can recognize and trust in another person's life.
We just can't get to noble when we are spending so much time trying to make our tasks reflect well on our identity. Noble comes as we know who we are and allow our tasks to be empowered by that knowledge. It is the identity that God has made for us, as His Children, that makes it possible to let tasks be all they can be in our lives. Nobility is in our blood as a result of what Jesus did for us on the Cross. The noble character is part of what living the victor's life is all about.
Trying to make your worth be shown as a result of all you do is such a victim making process. Isn't it time to live in that place of amazing worth? Stop allowing what you do be what shapes who you are. Live in that place of power and worth as the victor God has called you to be in your world today.
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