Who am I, my Identity

Who I am? Shakespeare once wrote, "This above all: to thine own self be true." But how can one be true to them selves if they do not know who they are? How can one be authentic if they do not know who they are? The answer is we can not, nether can we plan out our life, make the correct choices in life if we do not know who we are, and why we are here, the to age old questions man has asked. And the lack of that knowledge, the necessity of that knowledge is never more apparent then in the every day occurrence of meeting new people, the scenario below makes my point.

"Who are you?" the old man prodded Jim as he stood in the foyer of his office building.

"My name is Jim," he replied respectfully.

"No not your name," the old man snapped. "I don't care what you are called. I want to know who you are!"

A bit taken aback by this elderly inquirer, this time Jim replied, "I am Jim, and I am the Vice President of Marketing for this company. Can I help you?"

"No. Stop! You are not listening to me," yelled the man. "I don't care about your job, your title or your position. You are someone. Now who is it?

We all get ask the question when meeting someone new, but we never get challenged like the conversation above to really answer the question correctly. Who are you? and Who is not what you do, what you own, or what you drive. You are more than those things, instead you should be defined by what you are. Ones identity is more than a drivers license, social security number, address and date of birth.

I’ve always known the importance of knowing one’s identity, especially my identity in Christ and how that is so fundamental in a Christian’s spiritual walk with God. God has always been a matter-of-fact to me, Jesus is has always been a matter-of-fact for me, my Salvation has always been a mater of fact-for-me. But I really never grabbed hold of the truth of who I am in Christ and applied it fully to my life, grounded myself in that as to where I start from in who I truly am, until recently as God has been re-inventing me. And I have learned that one can't really claim that as a truth from themselves until it permanents every aspect of ones being, thinking and every action in their lives, until it truly defines who you are and your purpose for living. To have my identity in Christ is to see myself and let others know how God sees me, thereby answering the question "Who are you?" with who God says I am, because is in reality who I am. I just need to accept it and live, function in that reality of who I really am, and base everything else in life on that.

So in answer to the question who is Dennis Muse? What is my identity?

The answer to this question is simply “Christ.”  My life’s purpose and meaning is Christ, to live for Christ, to find my purpose, my goal, my identity in Christ.  Not simply to preach Christ, or to be good and moral, to simply believe in Him, but to take on the very identity of Christ, to be Christ-like, and I'm sent by Christ, on mission with Christ.

My identity is found in Jesus Christ, the son of the living God, Jesus is my life. In Him I live, and move and have my being, I am the Bride of Christ, I am a new a new creation in Christ.

And in order to truly fully express my identity in Christ I must understand who Christ is, not who I think or want Him to be, but who He is, the biblical Jesus, the one who was and is, and is to come, the one that all of scriptures bare witness of. (see my Yeshua page) To be in Christ is to throw the checklist-rulebook out the window and start focusing on God Himself, to abide in Christ, be the branch and let Him live, produce His life, His fruit though me.