If you were to open up your Facebook feed right now, I can just about guarantee you will find several posts in which someone has taken an online quiz that tells them who they are.
Seriously.
There’s a lot of people taking quizzes.
And I’m just as guilty as anyone in regards to this.
Over the last few months I’ve learned a lot about myself:
My arch nemesis is Taylor Swift.
Out of all the Batmen, I’m most similar to Lego Batman.
Out of all the comic book heroes I’m most similar to Wolverine. (I’m guessing, it’s the beard?)
Oh, and I’m Duke from G.I. Joe.
Now, as silly and fun as these quizzes can be, I believe they indicate something within us.
Many are having an identity crisis.
Many of us are so desperately trying to figure out who we are, that we fail to realize who we really are.
I know I’ve personally wrestled with this.
In high school and one year of college I played baseball, and so I was a baseball player. That’s who I thought I was. That’s how I identified myself.
And then, I got hurt moved back home, married my wife, started working, and went to college.
I was no longer a baseball player. In fact, I didn’t know who I was, but that didn’t stop me from trying to figure it out, which ultimately lead to my awkward John Travolta Urban Cowboy Stage.
It’s okay to laugh.
It wasn’t pretty.
But it’s all okay now. For the most part, I’m a pretty normal guy. And I no longer dress like John Travolta, which my wife appreciates.
I learned who I was.
So how do we do that? How do we learn about who we are?
Stop listening to the voices around us.
For many, feelings of inadequacy and not understanding who we are come from how we listen to all the voices around us.
We may have had a teacher tell us we weren’t smart enough. We may have had a parent tell us that they didn’t love us. We may have had a coach tell us we weren’t good enough. We may have, well, you get the idea.
We have a lot of people and things trying to tell us who we are.
After a while, or even a lifetime, of hearing these things, we start to believe them or we become so confused that we don’t know what to believe. So we start looking for words for our identity in all sorts of places.
This has to stop.
Start listening to what God says about us.
Do we want to discover who we are? Then we need to start listening to what God says about us.
He says:
- You are His child.
- You are a masterpiece.
- You are loved.
- You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
The list could go on and on.
You see, when we start listening to and believing the things God says about us, things begin to change.
No longer will our identities be tied to what others say or think about us. No longer will our identities be tied to what we do. No longer will our identities be tied to how we dress.
No longer will our identities be tied to the quizzes we take.
Instead, our identities will be tied to who we are in Jesus. And, well, that’s simply incredible.
Michael D. Perkins is a pastor and author of the new book, “Identity Crisis: 21 Days of Discovering Who God Says You Are.”
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