I spent last week with a very weird
group of people in the first of four Institute of Spiritual Formation week long
retreat/conferences. When I say weird I
only mean that it was an interesting gathering of people. Among them from Scotland a production
engineer, and a Pastor; from Britain an author, an few Salvation Army folks, a
couple of medical professionals, a pastor, and a housewife; from Germany a
computer systems analyst; from the US a retired Seminary President, an
attorney, a Nurse Practitioner, a couple pastors, a few church leaders, a
certified sex therapist. The speaker for
the week was a South African Pastor.
I learned a ton, from Trevor Hudson,
the speaker, from the reading that I’ve been doing, and from the cohort of 40
individuals walking this journey. I was reminded of a
truth that is so significant I thought I would toss it out to
you from my experience. “Ministry
always follows Identity.” This
was an awesome reminder for more than just ministry, but for life. Where do you find your identity?
Let me apply this to myself for the
sake of unpacking it for a moment. Is my identity wrapped up in being “a pastor?” If that’s true then I grind away at ministry
in order to maintain my identity so that I can be called pastor. The danger here is that I live in tension for
the simple reason that if at some point I lose my role as “pastor” I also lose
my “identity.” Losing one’s identity is kind of a big deal for life. I have actually thought about this much over
the years and I think I’m settled on this particular one. Maybe there are other places that I’m finding
my identity, so I’m working that out.
But what about you? How do you
identify yourself? The problem in
identifying ourselves by what we DO or by what we HAVE is that those things can
be taken away and then we’re in an identity crisis. Our role in business or at home, our wealth,
or our social status… they are all too some degree or another shifting
sand. In order to live and move with
confidence and joy we must know that our identity is wrapped up in something
unchangeable. Any ideas?
