Identity Crisis

By Taft Ayers

I have a friend that many people think I look like. We are not related at all. He is taller than me. He is more athletic than I am, and I have a few more "married pounds" than he does. He played basketball for Freed-Hardeman, the school that I graduated from. One time, the president of the school approached me in the cafeteria and said, "nice shooting last night."All that I would have to do is step foot on a basketball floor and it would be obvious that we were not the same individual.

The president must have gone to one of the University's games and then mistaken me for him in the lunch line. Ever happened to you? People come up to you and ask you questions as if they know you only to realize that you have never seen them before in your life? The bottom line? You are who you are. No more or no less. We should not try so hard to be someone that we are not. We should never sell ourselves short, either, so that others will perceive a mistaken identity about us.

What is your identity? What do you look like? Physically, we can change. Emotionally, we can fix. But Spiritually, we are either God's or we are not. There is no in-between. No fence post for us to comfortably sit on. Jesus talked about our identity in Matthew 13:24-30 and 36-43.

"The kingdom of heaven is like what happened when a farmer scattered good seed in a field. But while everyone was sleeping, an enemy came and scattered weed seeds in the field and then left. When the plants came up and began to ripen, the farmer's servants could see the weeds. The servants came and asked, 'Sir, didn't you scatter good seed in your field? Where did these weeds come from?' 'An enemy did this,' he replied. His servants then asked, 'Do you want us to go out and pull up the weeds?' 'No!' he answered. 'You might also pull up the wheat. Leave the weeds alone until harvest time. Then I'll tell my workers to gather the weeds and tie them up and burn them. But I'll have them store the wheat in my barn.'" Make sense to you? Some of the men who heard it did not understand so they asked Jesus to explain:"

After Jesus left the crowd and went inside, his disciples came to him and said, 'Explain to us the story about the weeds in the wheat field.' Jesus answered, 'The one who scattered the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the bad seeds are the people who belong to the evil one, and the one who scattered them is the devil. The harvest is the end of time, and angels are the ones who bring in the harvest. Weeds are gathered and burned. That's how it will be at the end of time. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everyone who does wrong or causes others to sin. Then he will throw them into a flaming furnace, where people will cry and grit their teeth in pain. But everyone who has done right will shine like the sun in their Father's kingdom. If you have ears, pay attention!'"

Who do you look like?

Will the Son of Man recognize you?

Will you shine like the sun in your Father's Kingdom?