Viewing entries tagged
love of God
Many people have made up their minds about Christianity without ever having actually read any of the Bible. Other people have been exposed to bits and pieces but made their own assumptions about how it all fits together. While no one verse can adequately explain all the intricacies of a book that numbers more than a thousand pages, most Christians agree that John 3:16 summarizes the heart of its message.
There are many things that make work hard. There are pressures, deadlines, expectations, and crises to deal with. While those things make work difficult, it’s almost always the people problems that make work unbearable. Conflict with coworkers keeps you up at night and makes you dread getting up in the morning. So, what can you do about it?
A few weeks ago, we hosted several mental health professionals for a seminar entitled, “Renewed not Defeated: How to End the Pandemic Mentally Healthier Than You Started.” As I listened to the speakers, it struck me how complex mental health is. They talked about physical factors like diet, exercise, and chemical imbalances. They talked about social factors like isolation, group involvement, and safe relationships. They talked about factors related to trauma and abuse. They talked a lot about what I’ll call wisdom factors. When we believe things that aren’t true and develop habits that are unwise, it affects our mental health. They also talked about how God can help. Let me share what I learned and how I relate.
Today, there’s a tendency to understand our sense of who we are in light of our feelings and ourselves. ‘The answer’s in our heart,’ we’re told, but many people don’t like the answers they find there. Our heart can be cruel and often it misleads us.
There’s a song by Casting Crowns called “Who am I?” that captures the comfort and reassurance of somebody who has built their sense of identity from the Bible. It says:
Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt
Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever-wandering heart
In a single stanza of their song, they express a number of unique aspects of the Bible’s perspective on identity. Notice that there’s no disguising the weakness. He can acknowledge his hurt and even admit to having a wandering heart. He can do this because he feels the care and attention of a God who sees him for who he is and still loves him. He can also do this because he sees Jesus ‘lighting the way’ and helping him to become all that he longs to be. These three aspects of a healthy identity come straight from the Bible. Let’s consider them.
Today, the question of identity is bigger than it’s ever been. ‘Who am I?’ isn’t just a question for philosophers. It’s asked by the middle-school student trying to navigate the hierarchy of groups and friendships. It’s asked by the teenager as they experience their first feelings of romance and attraction. It’s asked by the young adult confronted with a myriad of choices for career and lifestyle. It’s asked by the person in midlife who’s struggling with the gap between their dreams and their reality. It’s asked by the person who retires and is trying to understand where they fit without the identity of their career. And it’s asked by the person who’s nearing death and wonders whether their identity still has significance in the face of the brevity of life. Who are you? And how can you know whether your approach to understanding your identity will help or hinder you as you go through life? Let me compare three options.
