What thoughts do you have about yourself? Where do you find your identity in? Let me rephrase that, before COVID-19 what did you find your identity in? How did you view yourself?
After 8 weeks of COVID-19 quarantine, how has that changed?
Two songs came to mind as I was considering today’s post. The Heart of Worship by Matt Redman and Clear the Stage by Jimmy Needham. Similar in scope and message and have important truths for us if we want to understand our identity and purpose in life.
Matt Redman sings in the song The Heart of Worship, “when the music fades all is stripped away.” For many of us, that is the season we are living in, all has been stripped away. Sports, band, choir, theater, jobs, hangouts, and the battle for popularity are gone.
So many of the things we thought gave us an identity have been stripped away. This is what makes this season so hard for so many people. If you found you identity from your athletic team, how do you view yourself now that there is no more practice and games?
If you found your identity in your job, how are you feeling about yourself on unemployment (if it has come through for you)?
If your identity was based on being part of the popular crowd, how to you view yourself when there is no crowd?
It’s all been stripped away, and how are you responding to it? One huge lesson COVID-19 is teaching us is that these sources are temporal and fleeting, as Ecclesiastes says “meaningless”.
Jimmy Needham’s song, Clear the Stage, says “until your broken for your sins, you can’t be social…Anything I put before God is an idol…Anything I want with all my heart is an idol…Anything I can’t stop thinking about is an idol…Anything that I give all my love is an idol.”
And he calls us to use the time to destroy the idols, “clear the stage and set the sound and lights ablaze, if that’s the measure it takes to crush the idols.”
This season has been thrust upon us. Many of our idols have come crashing down and it has shoved us into uncertainty and crisis. But it doesn’t have to if you allow these uncertain times to point you to what is certain and true: the Word of God.
Ephesians 2:1–10
[1] And you were dead in the trespasses and sins [2] in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—[3] among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. [4] But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, [5] even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—[6] and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, [7] so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. [8] For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, [9] not a result of works, so that no one may boast. [10] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Essentially the question is, do you find your identity in the world or in the Gospel? The world is dying and finding your identity in the things of this world will only leave you bankrupt. The Gospel is life giving and eternal.
What does it say about your identity? Apart from Jesus, you were dead in your sins and a child of wrath. Dead. What does a corpse do? Before Jesus you could do nothing to please God, to earn salvation. You were hopeless. A child of wrath means that judgment and eternal punishment were due you, and there is nothing you could have done on your own to escape it.
We then encounter two of the best words in all the Scriptures, “But God…” Paul reminds us of how utterly hopeless we are and the systems of this world are, but then He points us to the One who is hope.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, [5] even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved…”
God moved toward us. He didn’t give a bunch of demands and requirements. He sent His Son in our place and provided a way for us to be made alive, to be forgiven and set free! That is some good news!
But it doesn’t end there!
We are sinners saved by grace!
We are made alive in Christ!
We have an eternal hope in heaven with Jesus!
We have the privilege of showing off the “immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us!”
We have are His workmanship!
We have things to do!
So much good stuff in this passage. Listen to this truth, your identity is no longer in your sin, it is no longer in this world, it is in the Son of God. He has made you alive with Him and He has a purpose for you. In all that you do, whatever vocation that may be, whether it is being a son or daughter, a mom or dad, a student, an employee, an employer, whatever it is, you have the privilege of living out the Gospel for all to see.
Matthew 5:16
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Use this time we have, when all feels like it’s been stripped away, to show you that God’s love is even more abundant and real then you ever knew. Allow the absence of idols to lead you to the Savior who died on the cross for you. Find your identity and meaning in Him. Allow His loving kindness and mercy to encourage you today.
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