Why You Can't Figure Out Who You Are (part 2)

You are designed.

“Everything has a purpose, even machines. Clocks tell the time and trains take you places. They do what they are meant to do… I would imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts you know? They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured if the entire world was one big machine then I couldn’t be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason — and that means you have to be here for some reason too.” — Hugo

You aren’t a cosmic accident or a result of time and chance. You were created, woven together — designed. You are not your past, you are not your mistakes, you are not your profession, you are not your pain, you are not your thoughts or your scars, you are not your good deeds, you are not your parents decisions or your sexual orientation. You are not who culture tells you you are, you are not the number that was placed on your chest or what someone else wants you to be. You’re something more.

You are valuable.

Anything created, was designed for a purpose. Someone created the chair because they needed somewhere to sit. Anything created has a capacity which it is designed to reach and a value that is attached to it.

One standard determines something’s value — how much someone is willing to pay for it.

You are a woven together, intricately and beautifully; you are a child of the King. And what are you worth? He gave His life so that you would begin to get a glimpse of how valuable you are.

You were created, with value, so that you could add value to those around you.

There is an enemy.

The truth is, you can’t fly without gravity, you can’t have the positive of life without the negative, and there is no such thing as good if there is no such thing as evil. So it stands to reason that if you were created for something good, evil would do everything it could to prevent you from realizing who you really are. If you are valuable to what is good, what is evil will inevitably come against you. This isn’t a Marvel movie, it’s real life.

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” — Charles Baudelaire

If I were the enemy, I would help people get what they wanted so they stopped searching for who they could really be. I would make others feel trapped at the bottom of society and believe God hates them so that they would become bitter and throw in the towel. I would make people believe that they were making progress, when really they were running in the wrong direction. I would keep people distracted with the urgent so that they would never discover the important. I would build a society that measured their self worth with their net worth and determined their value by the opinions of others. I would blur lines of objectivity so that people would fight for their own opinion rather than a common mission. I would make them believe that they had control. I would make them believe I didn’t exist.

In separating us by identifying us as republican or democrat, left or right, religious or atheist we haved turned the fight to each other and dehumanized the “other side”. We fight for who we think we are because we are conditioned to die on a hill just because we started there; because we think it’s who we are.

Find Him.

Return to the manufacturer

God became man so that he could pay a price big enough to cover every mistake you or I could ever make. He did this to restore access back to Him, our Manufacturer. The one who created us knows exactly what we need in order to perform optimally; what allows us thrive. We now have full access, if we choose it. You want to find what you were created for? Return to the Source. Go to Him with the hurt, the pain and the anger, with gloves off. He’s big enough to take it. Go to him with the triumph, the confusion, the mundane and the amazing. When we go to Him, fully open, we allow Him to give us exactly what it is we need to take our bestnext step; moment by moment, day by day until we become everything we should be. We can continue to theorize our way through life, or we can tap into a wisdom that already knows the end of the story. If you cannot find who you are, you are not seeking God.

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; the Christian ideal has been found difficult and left untried.” — GK Chesterton

Study the owners manual

The Bible is not just a collection of ancient writings. When you take the time to dig in, you find that it is the most intricately woven love story one could ever conceive. You will find that no separate minds with radically different backgrounds over scattered time periods could have woven this together so masterfully. Yes, people have abused the texts for years, taking verses out of context to serve themselves and divide our world, but our abuse of the Truth doesn’t nullify Truth itself.

God restored access back to himself through the sacrifice He made, and he gave us the owners manual. He gave us the answers to the test — the cheat sheet to our identity and our design.

If you knew that in His hands held the answers you have been looking for, the peace that seems to slip through your fingers, the joy that rarely shows up, and love that doesn’t waver, how relentlessly would you pursue Him?

So what will it be? Drift along in quiet desperation just to find ourselves filled with regret in the end, or finally give our all to the One who has the answers we’ve been searching for?

When who we think we are is rooted in people or ideas that are fleeting, our identity fades away with them. But when we choose to accept who we were created to be, our identity becomes rooted in immortality.

Unity.

“What is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.” — Marcus Aurelius

A community of “prisoners” encouraged prisoner like activity, so together they stayed. A community of “guards” encouraged violence and malice, so together they conformed. An authority figure who told the experimentees to behave a certain way, put them on a path of division and they proceeded to destroy each other.

We can choose the Authority that draws us together and uncovers our true identity, or we can choose an authority that brings division and buries our identity deeper every day.

Someone created a chair because they needed somewhere to sit, God created you so that you could build up those around you.

A life lived for ones self will inevitably produce division and confusion while a life lived for others will produce a thriving community. You were created, with value, so that you could add value to those around you.

Each one of us, understanding who we are, brings what we all long for, unity; and unity itself reveals all the more who we were created to be.

If I were the enemy, my greatest fear would be you, discovering who you were made to be.

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