“Who Am I and Why Am I Here?” or “Who Are You?”

Some years ago, I was watching a political debate and heard a question that really hit me. It was a three way vice presidential debate. The first two candidates were Dan Quayle and Al Gore. Now while Quayle was widely portrayed as a buffoon, these two men were clearly polished. They were both men born out of political royalty, reared basically from birth to hold these positions. That year the third party presidential candidate was Ross Perot, a billionaire business man. Perot selected David Stockdale as his running mate. Stockdale was older then the other two men, evidently by quite a bit. He was a war hero and not a polished politician. He was virtually unknown to the American public (which is probably sad).

Quayle and Gore made their opening speeches, as polished and precise as one might expect and then the spotlight fell on Stockdale, who opened with a question for the ages… “Who Am I and Why Am I Here?”

Now he was widely lampooned for this opening remark. Some acted as if he were old and senile and simply lost track of his identity. I think it’s a question we should all ask ourselves from time to time because truth be known we all lose track of our identity sometimes.

For me, I get a little too caught up in what I do. If you were to ask me who I am, I’d probably tell you I’m an artist , a speaker and a pastor. That’s actually the wrong answer. That’s not who I am, it’s what I do and while that is important, it pales in comparison to who I am.

Who I am first of all is a child of God. If I’m a Christian, if I’ve placed my trust in Jesus, then I recognize the high price He paid to give me that privilege and so that identity must be first and foremost. If I let what I do come before this identity, my life will be out of balance and I run the risk of falling into idolatry. My first and foremost identity must be as a child of God.

To my mind the first thing after that comes the first thing I do. It’s my response to the privilege of becoming a son of God. I’m a Christ-follower. I live my life to follow Christ. My level of success varies at times, but I live to follow Christ.

After that we go back to the other things I am, husband, father, son, brother, uncle, nephew, cousin friend. These are the relationships that God has blessed me with. For the most part, I did nothing to gain these relationships but my life would be vastly less, were it not for these people in my life and since people are the only thing in this world that go with us beyond the grave, these “roles” are a vital part of my identity and should be a priority right behind my identity as child of God and Christ follower.

Once this identity (“Who am I?”) is established the rest of life will work much better. We’ll look at Why am I here tomorrow, but for now…

Who are you?

Reject ALL Labels

Been there? Done That? Get the T shirt!

There are a lot of labels we slap on each other in the church. I’ll admit, I’ve never considered myself a liberal. I used to think I was a conservative until a conservative told me I wasn’t one. He said instead that I was an evangelical. I thought all Christians were supposed to be evangelical (Isn’t that what the Great Commission is all about?) When I heard my denomination had started a progressive group, I was excited. I’ve spent my whole ministry trying to create new ways to share the unchanging message of the Gospel. Isn’t that what progressive means? Evidently not. Just another way to advance a political agenda and I’m not much for politics anymore. We call ourselves pacifists, but for pacifists, we sure fight a lot and the countryside is littered with our denominational splits and while I love the people in my denomination (all of them because God said I had to and Jesus prayed that I would), there’s part of me that wonders if a denomination is just another label.

I mean I remember driving with a friend talking about God and the church, and when I told him my denomination, he said, “Oh, you guys are real liberal.” I thought about my little church in the corn field in Pennsylvania and thought, “How could he say that? We make Rush Limbaugh look like a liberal (or at least a moderate.) That’s the thing about labels, one size doesn’t fit all. The Bible speaks of speaking the truth in love but when we begin to separate behind labels it becomes either or, some having a problem with truth, others having a problem with love. A label is a litmus test. It stops being about Jesus and starts being about passing your groups litmus test. If you don’t believe me look at our government and ask yourself are they making their decisions based on what’s best for the people or the party. The party is the label and their decisions are how they pass the litmus test. Our Christian “labels” do the same thing. They divide what Jesus came to unite. When He prayed that we might be one as He and the Father are one, He meant you and me. I want better than division and dispute for my life, how about you?

I decided a long time ago that I reject all labels and the only litmus test I care about is the one given by the only one who won’t reject me when I fail to pass it. He told me to love everyone, even my enemies (if I had any, which I really don’t, largely because I really try to love everybody), stop being selfish, take up my cross DAILY and follow Him. We need to throw away our labels and pick up our Bibles. We need to forget our litmus tests and start following the doctrine set up for us by the Word of God. Should we leave the church? No, the Bible FORBIDS that. Do we dump our denominations? I don’t know if that’s necessary either. There are different denominations for the same reason there are different flavors of ice cream. Different people respond to different things and are reached by different things and God wants everyone to be reached by His love and the truth of the Gospel.(Speaking the truth in love, remember?)

What we must do is come together around the Word of God and in prayer and bring the church back into obedience to God and we have to start loving each other and the people in the world around us. I don’t have to agree with you to love you. I can disagree with you vehemently and still love you and you can fail my unintentional litmus tests (none of us should have them but we all do) and I will still love you. That’s what it means to follow the One who sacrificed Himself for the people who killed Him. I have many titles that tell you who I am, husband, father, man, pastor, speaker, artist employee, etc. and I’m okay with that but I reject all labels but one…

I am a FOLLOWER OF JESUS CHRIST.