But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light. “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.” 1 Peter 2:8-10
Crisis of identity
We live in a world where many are struggling with knowing who they are and what they are about. Who you think you are matters to how you will live your life. Erik Erikson, the psychologist from whom the idea of identity crisis developed, said it had to with the challenges people faced regarding their sense of self. “Who Am I?” is a question most, if not everyone existing, had asked themselves at some point or the other in their lives.
The Bible says, “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Prov. 23:7). Meaning, you become who you think you are. Hence the importance of understanding your identity, so you can connect with what God placed inside of you to become who He created you to be and do what He created you for.
Abuse, they say, is inevitable when the purpose of a thing is unknown. Carl Jung was reputed to have said, “the world will ask you who you are, and if you don’t know, the world will tell you.” In his famous classic, As A Man Thinketh, James Allen wrote:
“Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself.”
James Allen, As A Man Thinketh
There is a notion that understanding who you are gives you a sense of purpose. It opens the opportunity to find out why you are alive..