Today’s post features a song. Our grandkids sang this song on Sunday with the children’s choir at Academy Christian Church in Colorado Springs. Since I don’t have permission to publish their version, here is a link to an official version on YouTube. The song is Hello, My name is … by Matthew King.
Sunday was a long, but very good day. Our grandkids sing in a church children’s choir and their choir led the singing during four services yesterday. They sang two songs, but this one connects directly with today’s chapter. The important line in the song is “I’m a child of the one true King”.
I don’t think we think about our identify enough. Identity drives us. If I’ve experienced a great deal of failure in life I might identify myself as a loser and give up. If I’ve been excluded because of my race, there is a tendency to identify myself by the color of my skin even though I don’t want others to see me that way. Even for Christ followers the common expression, “I’m a sinner saved by grace” has me focusing on me and my sinfulness. My identity is sinner. I think that’s exactly how Satan wants me to identify myself. That’s because I live out of my identity. If I identify myself as a sinner, I’m going to be comfortable sinning.
Union with Christ gives you a completely new self-understanding found outside of yourself in Christ. Union with Christ gives you a new identity. In fact, that’s one way to define the Christian faith: faith is finding your identity in Christ. – Union with Christ by Rankin Wilbourne
My identity is not sinner. Neither does God intend my core identity to be my race, gender, occupation, wealth, or anything other than that I am His child. Wilbourne says that this should be both frightening and comforting. It should be frightening because as God’s child and a person in Christ and in whom Christ lives I am no longer in control. Life is not about me anymore. Instead, it is about we. The frightening part is that even though I know God loves me I in no way control Him. I don’t even really understand Him. I can’t predict what He is going to do. If I’m really committed to we and not me, then it is natural to be apprehensive.
At the same time, I should be comforted. The weight of the world is no longer on my shoulders. The church we’re attending in Colorado just finished a series on prayer. Before the service this quote is displayed on the video screens: “Pray and let God worry” By Martin Luther. God loves me and He is in control. This isn’t a passive situation. God is working, and I should be partnering with Him in that work, but I am not alone. I can rest.
So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective. Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ. (Colossians 3:1-4 MSG)
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