Identity Crisis

I love basketball.

And I live in a border state that has a long history of rivalry. 

Where I live most people tend to be for one particular team, but I still cling to my roots, win or lose, and cheer for my beloved Tigers.

With all the tournaments beginning this week, it's not uncommon to hear people refer to themselves as their favorite team.

I'm a ___________.

We identify ourselves with that team. They win, then we win. They lose, we lose.

No matter that never once have we actually PLAYED on the team.

It's not just sports though, we do it with our politics too.

I'm a Democrat.

Or Republican.

Or Libertarian. . .or all matter of variation there can be.

And then we do it with our churches as well.

Baptist (all kinds)

Methodist

Presbyterians 

Pentecostal 

Nazarene 

and on and on it goes.

Labeling, putting ourselves in groups. It's nothing new and yet,  the more  people I'm around the deeper I find this labeling-this  longing for identity  going. 

And we'll put that identity on anything and call it who we are.

But really, it's who we THINK we are.

We label ourselves by things we typically would never call someone else.

Stupid, loser, lazy, bankrupt. . .

Or by things that once marked us that we broken free from physically but mentally still identify ourselves by. . .

Addict, divorcee, adulterer, thief, gossip. . .

We say we believe God, but when He calls us Friend we laugh to ourselves and claim that to be true for someone else but surely not for us.

Or beloved.

Child.

Precious. 

All things we would so easily tell someone else they were in Christ, but for us we may say we believe but we certainly don't live like we do.

Otherwise, we wouldn't be nearly so mean to ourselves or each other.

If you are a believer in Christ, today no matter where you are or what you're doing, God calls you Friend.

What would happen if we started living like we believed that?

Blessings,