Identity Crisis

This is on the front page of Espn.com under a picture of Michael Vick.

"Michael Vick has spent the past 2 ½ years as a symbol. On Sunday, he will become a person again when he takes the field for the Eagles."

Who we are is not defined by what we do for a living or even the gifts that we have been given by God. This statement and this man are prime examples of how we worship false idols and how we find our identity in temporary and destructible things and how those things can and do crumble.

As I read that and started to think about it, I thought of two things. First, is John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" That word truth is the Greek word Alethia. It means that which is true under any matter under consideration. It means that Jesus is unaffected by circumstances or environment. It means that he is unchangeable, unfaltering and unwavering, he is the same today as he has always been.

Second, I thought of the old hymn that says, "My hope is built on nothing less that Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus name." The identity of the follower of Jesus is found solely and completely in the person of Jesus Christ. Colossians 3:3 says that our lives are now hidden in Christ.

May you rest in the hope that your identity cannot perish, spoil or fade and is placed in the unchanging unaffected nature of Jesus Christ.