Why Identity?

Great question. Why identity? 

Our society is drowning in sick identity. With the university, Whitewater certainly seems to be the bleeding edge of identity politics locally (outside of Madison). The latest event being the movie night hosted by our local library.

It is currently common for schools to hide identity issues with our children. The number of children struggling with identity is now commonplace. Every parent typically knows and interacts with a number of children struggling with identity on a weekly or daily basis.  Laws are being ignored.

From a secular (non-spiritual) view, the continued and increased sexualization of our kids (and ourselves, for that matter) has been directly tied to depression, addictions, trafficking, the breakdown of the family, abortion, and …. I could go on. 

And we can ask ourselves why these people feel such a strong worldly desire to discuss sexual and racial identity with our kids; and why discussing in schools topics that are forbidden in our workplaces. 

A good number of conservatives cringe when I bring up Faith and Christ into political and local issues. I have been told many times that bringing Faith into an argument turns people away. I have heard “as long as it is not in my house” for many years. Now it is in many of our homes. I have heard pseudo-conservatives and Christians accept “a little abortion” or a small amount of any wrongdoing in order to gain a few votes, rarely winning battles but losing every war.

On the flip side, I once asked my good friends, Matt and Ryan (from Expedition44.com) should Christians be leaders in politics; we are to be leaders in everything, no? Their mutual response was that Christ followers are of Christ’s Kingdom, and our involvement in earthly politics should be limited (a direction I lean more and more towards). I have another friend … for the sake of anonymity, we will call this friend “Paul”. “Paul” has been thru hell and back in his life and acts with a Grace I pray for daily. When I discuss my latest antics in Whitewater, Paul typically puts his hand on my shoulder and prays for discernment and peace. I received that Grace from Paul and another brother (we will call this friend “Sam”) yesterday.  Reminding me how blessed I really am.

So I am going to make the case for identity. The answers are fairly simple; however getting to the answer will require many stops. I hope you take the time to read, maybe question it … question me about it (I would love it).

Personal note: Where are the locusts and honey? I feel like the one in the Wilderness, crying REPENT !!

Today’s Generation

During my post here, I will probably bring up The Jesus Revolution. The movie is about a Christian revival involving the hippies in the late sixties and early seventies. The hippies … looking for love…. looking for identity …. looking for God (via psychedelics)… all too familiar…

Gen X was perfect, weren’t we? LOL I kid. I was disappointed the Whitewater Cinema decided not to carry this movie. I would have loved to rent out the theater for a showing.

Call me up. I will go see this movie with you.

Chuck Smith, the lead pastor in The Jesus Revolution, is an iconic American pastor. Chuck welcomed the hippies into his church. So many lives were changes as a result of the love of Christ. Addictions fall by the wayside.

I say this not to name drop, but to testify to the power of Christ. I have seen miracles. I have seen heroin addicts change their lives. I have seen people lose tons of weight. I have seen personality disorders evaporate. I have seen marriages healed. I have seen people truly find their identity.

There was a time in my Faith journey that I realized that spiritual healing is so much more important than the physical healing we see.

The crazy thing is …. it is available to you… to every confused college kid… every high school kid that writes about “kindness matters” yet does not truly know love. In The Jesus Revolution, Greg Laurie has a horrible childhood. No father, alcoholic mother. His struggle to believe the Father in Heaven is so hard … he doesn’t know what a father is.

How many kids today can relate to Greg Laurie?

Chuck Smith washed the feet of hippies coming into his church. That is how we need to react to Gen Z. Opportunities are definitely present for me.

Joe Kromholz and the School Board Race

Last year, Kromholz was placed on the school board per fiat after the death of Jim Stewart. Kromholz then ran for the three year term last spring. During election season, the LWV did not bring up identity in their forum, so I brought it up and posted answers from the candidates (link here). Kromholz really shied away from addressing identity.

This year, Kromholz took on a different strategy, in part because the needle has moved considerably with the boldness of those who chase worldly values such as fluid gender identity. During this year’s forum the question was asked what they would tell parents who do not want their kids exposed to racial and sexual identity ideology.

Kromholz flipped those parents the bird. He actually quoted the Bible and accused those parents of sowing discord.

There are only two places where discord is referenced in the Bible. Of the two, this seems to be the Bible verse referenced by Kromholz:

¹⁶ There are six things that the Lord hates,
    seven that are an abomination to him:
¹⁷ haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
    and hands that shed innocent blood,
¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked plans,
    feet that make haste to run to evil,
¹⁹ a false witness who breathes out lies,
    and one who sows discord among brothers.

Proverbs 6:16-19 ESV

It is a pretty fascinating Bible verse. Now, I am not accusing Kromholz of reading or understanding the Bible. The Bible is misused very often, such as it was here by Kromholz. Even Satan tried to quote the Bible to manipulate Jesus in the Wilderness.

More specifically, to suggest that those who disagree with Kromholz; those whose lives reflect the love and the teachings of the Bible (with regard to identity); or to suggest the Bible itself is sowing discord… well, it’s a circular argument that lacks logic. Kromholz is a (patent) lawyer, I am sure he understands where I am going here.

Kromholz’s comments (at least my interpretation) is that parents that do not want gender and racial ideology discussed by the schools are sowing discord.

And he dismisses your concerns as such. And he was relatively fervent with his statement. If Joe Kromholz wants to clarify his statements, tell me I am completely wrong, change his position, or repent 🙂 I will gladly print his comments here.

Identity

I have not yet figured out how to eloquently speak of identity. There is the iconic idiom of pride being the ultimate sin. My own faith journey has led me to believe this.

Like pretty much any man, I have had to figure out how to deal with anger. Gary Chapman writes that anger is almost exclusively the result of being wronged. Wronged by family. Wronged by friends. Wronged by the church (this even happens in The Jesus Revolution).

When you are wronged, what are you supposed to do? Get revenge? NO.

You are to forgive. Doesn’t that sound like the craziest thing? But when you forgive, you get peace. Every time. Jesus modeled it. Perfectly.

When you forgive, you understand and acknowledge that you are not God. Vengeance is for God alone.

And you get peace. Every time. Like miracles are available to you, peace is available to you.

If you choose to act on your anger, you make yourself your own God. Sounds a lot like pride. Even when I act in an ungodly way, I am choosing to not trust God. When I step out of Faith, I need to repent, make amends, and follow Christ.

The Cure for Pride

The cure for pride is understanding you are a child of God, putting your Faith in Him, and working towards giving more and more of your life to him.

Crazy it is, how being a servant brings so much peace and joy. Ten years ago, people in my life told me I never smiled. I haven’t stopped smiling for quite some time…. with the exception of when I step away (temporarily). And if I step out temporarily, it is probably due to politics (or coparenting as a divorced dad 🙂 ).

The Craziest Thing and a Confession

So when you do this… when you turn over your life (freely) to God… well, many things happen. One thing that happens is that you start to wrestle with the sin in your life: Lack of self control, addictions, etc. (What all the hippies did in The Jesus Revolution).

Probably over the last year, I have come to realize that a Christ follower truly becomes a brand new person.

And these grown up baptisms that happen are acknowledgements that you are a new person.

Confession: I was baptized a few years ago. At the time I didn’t feel any different. I feel like that is a horrible thing to say. I had been a Christ follower for a few years, and my life was changing dramatically.

But the change is so dramatic. Again, watching the baptisms in The Jesus Revolution was another light bulb moment for me.

So Why on God’s Green Earth Did You Write All That?

Because going after one’s identity is going directly after one’s soul.

Addictions are a symptom.

Abortions are a symptom.

Anger is a symptom.

The breakdown of the family is a symptom.

Even pride is a symptom, imho.

Let’s take this further

There was a point in my life that I began to explore the Bible, including Creation and the Crucifixion.

I prayed about it, truly not knowing if there was a God to answer me.

God answered me, sometimes directly thru actions that happened in my life; sometimes thru becoming overwhelmed during prayer and worship.

God answered me thru miracles. 

And I continued to question everything. And if you think I challenge the leadership in Whitewater, try being an adult Christian trying to explain all this to me. 

And I asked God to search my heart.

And God searched my heart,

And God took away pain in my heart.  (And this is a work in progress).

And God gave me patience, love and self control.

And I started to wrestle with my sin.

And, to this day, when I step away from God, I am pulled back in thru Grace and repentance. 

Then one day, someone gave me The Screwtape Letters.

Then later that same day, my sister gave me The Screwtape Letters.

So I decided to read The Screwtape letters. 

And the realization that there was truly an enemy became a reality. 

And that enemy didn’t choose Noah’s rainbow by accident. 

And, here’s the crazy part….  Jesus is coming back. 

And I kept digging …. Why such pain in the world?

Why?  Because God wants people that truly love him.

And free will is a prerequisite for love.  You must choose to love someone or something. 

(Ask any estranged parent)

And to have free will, one must be able to choose who to worship.

(And many choose to worship themselves)

So God gave us the tree of knowledge of good and evil, along with the consequences. 

And this … all… is just the beginning. 

So what about the churches that choose to embrace worldly identity?

God modeled his relationship with us after a Biblical marriage.  He referred to Jesus as the bridegroom and the Church as the bride. 

It sounds crazy at first. It requires Faith to understand. 

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh

Matthew 19:5b NASB ,

Those are Jesus words. 

The book of Romans is said to be the greatest work of literature the world has known. It was written by Paul, an apostle who formerly killed Christians. 

Paul’s words regarding a society that rejects God:

Romans 1:18-32 NASB

Unbelief and Its Consequences

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth ^[a]in unrighteousness, ¹⁹ because that which is known about God is evident ^[b]within them; for God made it evident to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse. ²¹ For even though they knew God, they did not ^[c]honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless hearts were darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible mankind, of birds, four-footed animals, and ^[d]crawling creatures.

²⁴ Therefore God gave them up to vile impurity in the lusts of their hearts, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. ²⁵ For they exchanged the truth of God for ^[e]falsehood, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed ^[f]forever. Amen.

²⁶ For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged natural relations for that which is contrary to nature, ²⁷ and likewise the men, too, abandoned natural relations ^[g]with women and burned in their desire toward one another, males with males committing ^[h]shameful acts and receiving in ^[i]their own persons the due penalty of their error.

²⁸ And just as they did not see fit ^[j]to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a depraved mind, to do those things that are not proper, ²⁹ people having been filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, and evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice; they are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, ^[k]haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹ without understanding, untrustworthy, unfeeling, and unmerciful; ³² and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.

Identity

There is no part of my identity in Christ that does not give me peace, joy, gentleness, goodness, self-control.  It is truly crazy and good.  And when I step away from it, 😊 not so good… 

• If your identity makes you eat or drink to excess, you need a new identity.
• If your identity makes you angry, you need a new identity.
• If your identity gives you mental health issues, you need a new identity. 
• If your pride is your identity, you need Jesus. 
• If your identity is related to an addiction, you need a new identity. 

I have never seen someone embrace Jesus and not have substantial and sustained healing. 

You have a choice to make

Every day that goes by, that choice gets harder. 

The lukewarm Christians need to make a choice, the world or the Truth. 

Some churches have chosen the world over Jesus.  They have chosen the sin over the sinner.  If you are attending a church that embraces anything other than Biblical marriage and Biblical men and women, then your church has chosen the world.  You need to leave that church and do not look back. 

Your choice:  Jesus or the World. 

The world gets it’s morality from however they feel at the time. Openly challenge every word in the Bible… every word… with an open heart and open mind, and watch God bring his kingdom to your life, small piece at a time.

And I have only scratched the surface on identity.  I hope you enjoyed this post.  I look forward to your feedback. 

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-mike