Who Am I? or Whose Am I?

I’m a philosophy major, so I guess it comes naturally to me, but no doubt you do it too. As I was standing on the center of campus the other day eating a banana, it hit me. I was unsure of who I was. That sounds deep, but it’s not all that bad. You see, I was dealing with questions that we all have to deal with: what am I doing here…what I should do about dating and marriage…what job do I need to take….etc. I was (and still am) dealing with questions of prudent Christian decision making. What decisions should I make for the future? How will they honor Christ?

These are very important questions, and their answers will affect me and those around me for the rest of my life. But as I was standing there peeling that banana, the solution to all of these problems found me. You see, as Christians, when we are concerned about who we are, we always need to first look to Whose we are. Who I marry and what graduate school I go to are really important questions that deserve prayer, meditation, and wise counsel. But ultimately, they aren’t really all that important from a Kingdom perspective. Who I am is not someone who attends _____ school, marries _______, and is friends with _______, _______, and _______. Who I am is a sinner saved by grace whose Lord is God and whose righteousness is Jesus’s! The most important thing in my life is that Jesus loves me and paid for my sins in full. In light of that, all those other things become less important. If Jesus is my righteousness, then I can go to the “wrong” school, get the “wrong” job, and mess up on the city I was “supposed” to live in. Why? Because having a relationship with a God who loves you and promises to change you will bring you more happiness than making the so-called “best” decision. When Jesus is your righteousness, all the other little things start to fall away. We would do well to remember that.