Has it ever felt like your world was turned upside down by something as simple as a change in job functions?  Have you ever been crushed to learn that someone sees you in a completely different light than you see yourself?   Has your confidence ever been shaken by criticism?  Of course!  These feelings are common to all of us.  But it’s important for us to see that they occur through wrong identification.  

            Fallen man is desperate for identity.  The need for definition is the driving force behind many of the actions we take.  And it is this paramount ego of man that makes it so easy to capitalize on anything that bears the label “self-help” or “self improvement.”  Without a sense of “self” we feel naked and vulnerable.  So we create a persona and project an image we hope others will see.  But when that image is misinterpreted we are quick to correct, and if it is tested even further we are quick to defend.  Why?  Because it is how we see ourselves.  It is what we believe about ourselves.  And if we are not what we believe we are then what are we?  How will we know how to act?  Who would we be?

            I spoke to a man a while back who was obsessed with the need to have all the answers. It was not Frank’s job to train his co-workers, yet he found satisfaction knowing he was the one they sought for information. If too much time passed without someone popping their head into his office to ask a question he’d find himself feeling empty.  He was becoming painfully aware that He was hooked on the feeling he got when others looked to him for solutions. As people’s dependency on him grew he was even more identified by his manufactured role, which compelled him to keep up the charade - even though he was finding it difficult to complete his own job duties.

            You see, Frank didn’t have all the answers his co-workers needed. No one man does. In actuality, he spent a lot of time in the company handbook to maintain his image as the “answer-man.” His need to appear knowledgeable was wrapped up in his belief about himself and so, rather than admit he didn’t know, his life was stressed with the pressure of keeping up the front.

            Needless to say, Frank was miserable.  He desperately wanted to let down his defenses but the fear of how others would perceive him kept him paralyzed. Frank was living from the burden of identity.

            What is the burden of identity?  I use the phrase to refer to a false need to “be someone.”  More specifically, that push we feel to prove our significance. There is nothing wrong with the intrinsic sense of value we would all feel if we would sit still long enough.   That sense of worth is God’s deep-seeded seal of approval upon our heads. It is there because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the virtue and blood of Christ.  In this vein we are all “somebody.”  We are His beloved, forever chosen by God, forever in union with Christ. 

            But there is another kind of identity the fictitious self craves.  It is the need to be someone apart from God.  And it manifests in many ways.  It is that thing we do to make others like us.  That thing we do to impress.  That thing that we do to make sure everybody around us is happy.  Or it is that thing we do to make sure everybody around us is miserable!  You have one way and I have another, but common to all is the fact that it’s that thing we do to keep others from knowing what we fear the most... that we’re just not enough. 

            Our greatest freedom comes when we can agree with these adversarial fears quickly.  I know I’m not enough, and neither are you.  We weren’t made to be enough.  We are made to contain the One Who is enough. And as a container, we’re perfect!  And if we’d believe this about ourselves we’d also see that we’re lively vessels made to have intimacy and union with the One Whom we contain. This is no ordinary vessel!  We may not have a separate identity but who in their right minds would want one? It is better to find contentment in being a unique, individual expression of the One True Christ.

            We’re made to mirror the Living God.  We don’t have to be Him, we don’t even have to emulate Him.  We simply need to be what we are;  emptiness for His Infilling, negative for His Positive, weakness for His Strength, and the darkness for His Light.  We are the tangible for His Intangible.  As we become aware of our union with Him we also become aware that we are His intended manifestation on the earth. 

            This is the greatest sense of purpose a man can have.  But our conflict occurs with the broken images of who we think we need to be.  Long ago the Liar told us that if we’d eat of this "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" we’d be “like God.”  We ate... and we weren’t like God.  Since that moment, Satan has governed us and compelled us to be like God. The soul has struggled to know the difference between good and evil.  While believing she's a sound judge, the soul calls good evil, and evil good. This misguided ego even tries to judge God.  With an intense desire to be right, there is an inability to admit or to even see our error.  We fill our apologies with excuses and explanations while quietly assuring ourselves that we’re still at least partially right. 

            And all this for want of identity.  The burden of identity is wrapped around our belief in a lie.  Jesus said, “Come to Me and I will give you rest - all of you who work so hard beneath a heavy yoke [all of you who work so hard to preserve an image]. Wear My yoke [wear Me, My identity]- for it fits perfectly [for you were made to wear Me, not your own false image] - and let Me teach you; for I am gentle and humble, [let Me teach you how to reflect Another’s Identity, for even I did only those things I saw My Father doing] and you shall find rest for your souls... [an end to the burden and illusion of a separate self] ” Emphasis mine.

            Father is asking us to lay down the role-playing and image-keeping. He’s asking us to let go of the lie and the false one it created.  He’s asking us to simply admit that we don't know what we think we know.  We're not judges and our interpretations are not accurate. We have nothing to prove and there is nothing in us that needs defending.  Our substance is Christ. He’s already perfect and needs no defense.   Ours is to contain His life, to fellowship with that life from a position of union, to learn who we are by discovering His life within us, and to receive...for He is meek and humble of heart.   

            So be it, friends, let’s find the freedom of being “no one” so that He alone can be the great Someone Who identifies us all.                                           

“The cross of Christ is man’s only hope for laying down the burden of the fictitious self.”