Core Identity

What is our identity? How does our identify affect our behavior and well-being? Is our identity ideal?

One will find multiple definitions for the word "identity" in the dictionary, which include one's name, characteristics, qualities, personality, but what is the the primary or principle way in which we see ourselves and present ourselves to others? What is our meta-identity or core identity?

We might identify with the company for which we work, a reading club, or our favorite sports teams, but our core identity should supersede and speak to these peripheral identities. Unfortunately, this is not a line of contrast and that all of us draw, and consequently, what should be peripheral, ends up at the center of how some of us see and portray ourselves. But whatever operates as our core identity deeply affects our affections, thoughts, and pursuits. It either holds us down or lifts us up.

Isn't it interesting that we are born with an identity and a deep concern about how we are identified, and that our identity affects how we feel about ourselves and the sort of life we live? We have names, which our parents carefully choose and everyone knows us by, and also online profiles, which many of us spend too much time trying to curate. God forbid no one knows us, and we can't bear to think we are insignificant. We want a unique and respectable standing and role within our community, county, and even the cosmos. We want to have great purpose, to be known and loved as an individual, and to be united with other people.

This propensity and need to be identified with something significant is expected if we were made to be someone in particular, but surprising if we have no objective (innate and lasting) identity — if our existence is an accident. If our existence is no accident, however, our core identity shouldn't be (and ultimately can't be) whatever we make it. Rather, it should be whatever we were made to be. “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing ..." (Matt. 5:13).

And yet, we often try to create our own identity.

But if we go to great lengths to make a name for ourselves, we find that all of the earthly identities by which we try to perceive and portray our core self, fall short of who we sense we are and who we long to be. Indeed, all these identities are found wanting and insufficient because they do not give us the identity we need, to be the person we know we should be.

Abilities

Whether it be speaking, singing, or serving, if an ability is truly the sum total of who we are, we must know that we can and will one day lose the ability by which we identify ourselves. Indeed, if our identify begins and ends with an ability, we have an identity that is fading, might be lost any day, and stops at the grave, which is unstable, insecure, and temporal. In the meantime, how could we possibly maintain a high self-esteem when our identify rests on an imperfect ability, and what unbearable shame we bring upon ourselves when we inevitably fail to maintain or maximize that ability. An identity based on ability also puts us in a box, for it impedes us from seeing ourselves outside that ability, when we were made for more than whatever we might be good at right now and can do on our own. An identity defined by ability also pushes us to swing between two extremes of feeling better or lesser than others who share that ability, and it struggles to find a connection and concern for those who don't share that ability. It is combative and enslaving to see ourselves as superior or inferior to those who share the ability with which we identify ourselves, and how exclusive it is to be disconnected with and unconcerned for those who lack that ability. If the flourishing of our ability is the essence of our persona, then the person who doesn't compete with or share but can help us improve our ability won't be combated or excluded, but they are at risk of being abused -- of becoming a means to an end -- which is an identity that no person is meant or wishes to have.

Interests

Interests can change, and they often do, so we will have an insecure and unstable outlook of ourselves if we identify ourselves primarily by our interests. If our circumstances prevent us from pursuing the interest by which we identify ourselves, our self-understanding -- our core identity -- has dissolved. Even if we can pursue our interests as often as we'd like to until we die, doing so only keeps us in a box with no dynamic identity that can navigate the world outside of those interests. An identify based on interests is also disinterested in relating and identifying with the many people who don’t share those interests, which is a recipe for exclusivity.

Race or Sex

Since there are many races and two sexes, if we identify ourselves by race or sex, we have embraced an identity that is by its very nature disconnected, and thereby exclusive to many people in the world. Moreover, by seeing ourselves primarily within the context of race or sex, we reduce ourselves to a characteristic that is not one of the most excellent and valuable characteristics we humans have been endowed with and can exercise. Indeed, merit and intellect fall behind the scenes when our identity is wrapped up in sex or race. Shamefully, we highlight our impersonal, amoral, and non-rational attributes and put the light of our moral and rational personhood in the background. In the end, we’ve excluded not only others, but also ourselves, from the very essence of what it means to be human. 

Profession

An identity that is primarily based on a professional title or work comes with many of the same concerns as an identity based on ability. It's unstable (since we could lose our job), temporal (since our job won't last forever), often competitive (since others can and will challenge our work), and exclusive (since those who have nothing to do with our work are of little or no concern to us). Moreover, others who are a positive force for our work will be seen as an instrumental good, not intrinsically good, because they become a means to our ends, rather than a person who means something in the end. In short, with a work-based identity, we are tempted to see most people as threats, inferior, irrelevant, or useful, which gives us a distorted view of humanity and little (if any) opportunity or interest for an intrinsically good and wholesome friendship.

Accomplishments

Accomplishments will be forgotten and/or superseded, and when they are, lost and alone are those of us who have identified ourselves by our accomplishments. Accomplishments also don't really give us an identify for here and now: they are in the past, which means they give us nothing by which to perceive ourselves in the present and future. Our self-understanding and portrayal will be of our former self, leaving us with little or no consideration of others presently before us, nor guidance on how to be today and tomorrow.

Relationships (Family and Friends)

Understanding the self as a father, sister, or friend, is closer to the home for which we long, but a home built on sand if on its own. Our earthly relationships with the ones we love, which are immeasurably meaningful and valuable to us, will one day end forever, if these relationships have no origin and promise in the divine. We need something that explains and preserves the gift of relationship, while also guiding us to be the best we can be in those priceless relationships.

But might we be able to avoid the negativity that these peripheral identities tend to produce when we make them our core identity? Can't we resist, rather than accept, the logical conclusions and emotional baggage that these identities carry? Might we treat people as we want to be treated, and listen to our conscience anyway? Perhaps it is possible that we can remain positive and treat people positively, in spite of how our identity would have us be, but we should ask ourselves, "how can our core identity counter our core convictions?" Our core identity should inform and justify, not oppose, the way in which we ought and want to be.

In any case, no matter the good we do because or in spite of these identities, none of them can grant and secure us with the inherent and immovable worth that, deep down inside, we know every human has. As we often say, "Every life matters" and “Respect my rights.”

So what sort of identity do we ultimately long for? In noting how other identities fall short in explaining our intuitions, guiding us to goodness, and fulfilling our longings, we can see that the ideal identity is one that is immovable, unending, unlimited (dynamic), uplifting, and fulfilling. We also want our identity to unify -- to minimize the points of exclusion and division with others.

While we tend to define ourselves by first looking within, might we find ourselves by first seeking out? Since none of the identities derived from us can contain us, might our identity come from something outside of us?

Religion seems like a good candidate for providing an ideal core identity, except that some religions deny a personal, loving, and just Creator, like Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism, and thereby eliminate the possibility of having an innate, lasting, uplifting, and fulfilling identity. Only a person greater than us can value us, guide us to goodness, satisfy us, and have our trust. Other religions might promote inequality between men and women or violence towards those who do submit to its conception of God, like Islam (1), while others might not offer us a lasting identity because we are not a descendent of Abraham, like Orthodox Judaism. Though all of these religions contain some truth about human nature and our moral duties, I don't think that they are good, robust, or inclusive enough to offer all of us inherent and equal worth and the opportunity to form a united and diverse community.

We have no innate and lasting identity without a creator, and no luminous and satisfying identify without a particular Creator -- a Creator who made us, is gracious, and claims us.

We find three truths in Christianity that affirm such a Creator, which in effect, explain the unique characteristics of the human person, and grant us inviolable worth, everlasting purpose, and ultimate fulfillment.

Imago Dei

The doctrine of the Imago Dei, which is found in both Judaism and Christianity, says that all humans are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). The Imago Dei explains the origin of our exceptional abilities (speech, rationality, imagination, free-will, creative and artistic powers) and gives us an identity before we can do anything, that is beyond anything we can do (2). Indeed, the likeness of our Creator is stamped on our soul the moment were created by him. As St. Gregory of Nyssa put it, "... this likeness to the Divine is not our work at all; it is not the achievement of any faculty of man; it is the great gift of God bestowed upon our nature … (3). For the soul, therefore, "it is not a question of knowing something about God but of having God within" (4). As Martin Luther King wrote a year before his assassination, “every human being has etched in his personality the indelible stamp of the Creator. Every man must be respected because God loves him." (5)

Redeemed

All major religions say humans have a problem and try to propose a solution, but Christianity most adequately defines the problem and presents the most satisfying answer. Christianity claims that we were made to be good like God, but we feel guilty because we have sinned (rejected and opposed Love). There is nothing man can do to undo or remove this problem, but God can make us innocent by voluntarily suffering for our sins, which he did when he accepted the cross. Redemption through Christ explains our relentless sense of hope in our state of fallenness, for it says we've been caught and need not remain in guilt. It affirms that we are intimately known and immensely loved.

Adopted

There are so many good things we experience in this world, and family is amongst the greatest. However, we lose it all in death, unless we have a home beyond the grave. The Father sent his Son to become our brother, so we can become sons and daughters of the Father. Our sin has made us orphans, but the Son has paid our fee for adoption. And if God has not forsaken us, but has forgiven our sin and adopted our souls, this explains our longing to belong to something beyond the fleeting and finite, and this means we have been placed in a forever family of divine love, while maintaining and maximizing our unique, God-given personality. "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name ... " (John 1:12)

As we investigate and contemplate the Christian outlook, we find that it, and it alone, provides the identity for which we ultimately long -- it offers each of us the ideal identity. 

Permanent (Eternal)

We should try to perform well in our work and with the talents we have, to glorify God with what he has given us, but when we make a mistake or flat out fail, we have no crises of identity because we are forever children of God. Nothing can separate us from "the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." No downfall, demon, disability, not even death itself, can dissolve our identity in the one who created and sustains the universe and the souls of men and raises the dead back to life. "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:38-39)

Dynamic

Being made in the image of the only Being with unlimited power, brilliance, and goodness, gives us unlimited access to do what is brilliant and good. Our abilities, accomplishments, and creative capacities can forever expand by the grace of our generous God. This is why many of the greatest statues (David), paintings (Sistine Chapel), structures (medieval cathedrals), poems (Dante’s Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost), institutions (universities and hospitals), inventions (calculator and printing press), and discoveries (calculus and gravity) throughout human history, have come to us from the minds and hands of Christians.  

Instructive

Being made, saved, and Fathered by the Person of perfection is an identity that continually calls us upwards and guides us in every moment. In accepting and following Christ as our Lord and Savior, by loving God with our whole being and our neighbor as our self, we embrace an ethos that transcends the moral trappings that inevitably arise within a temporal and self-centered identity.

Inviting (Inclusive)

Whether we are sick in the hospital or at the peak of our health, whether we are a Nobel prize winning scientist or unemployed, if we are Christians, we are forever brothers and sisters. Siblings may have different interests, talents, and jobs, but they all have each other's backs and are equally valued by their Father. No matter our age, race, sex, wealth, or societal status, we are one in Christ. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28). And since the neighbor whom Jesus calls us to love includes the person who opposes our beliefs or even hates us, the Christian disposition makes way for a pluralistic society.

Fulfilling 

Knowing that one's identity is secure in God to expand into eternity, that one's relationships will never be extinguished — that no man nor circumstance can remove the purpose and promises of the one who can do all things and whose love is unmatched — to be known and loved by the most excellent Person that exists, is fulfilling ... or nothing is.

So, what will be our core identity? Do we trust that our existence holds significance, no more or less than our neighbor? Do we recognize that we yearn for more than we can give ourselves? Will we admit that we have fallen short of the glory of God, and only by his glory can we be saved? Do we want to be a part of a universal family that is not bound by time and geography or determined by performance? If it is true that “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved," (Rom 10:13), will we call the one whom can save us?

To those who are not convinced that God sent his Son to give us eternal life, and yet we wish that it were true, let us humbly and sincerely seek what is true, and our pursuit will not be in vain. 

References

1. Hadith 2658; Surah 9:29

2. If we are made in the image of God, who has infinite value and values us infinitely, our abilities are forever connected to but do not completely define or explain who we are, for we are who God says we are, and we aren't the Word (voice) of God. In other words, since our identity is established by God, and we can't be God, we are unable -- we don't have the ability -- to establish our identity.

3. Gregary of Nyssa, De Virginitate 12, 2: SC 119, p. 408-410

4. Gregary of Nyssa, De Beatitudinibus 6: PG 44, 1269c

5. Holland, Dominion, p. 494