In response to my friend Mat’s piece about identity I would like to offer an “and.”  We wait for God to reveal our identity and we work at learning the identity that God has already given. 

We all carry conceptions, correct and mistaken, about who we are.  It becomes a gift of clarity and confidence when we start learning about who God has uniquely made us to be.  How many of us are living an identity of who we think we ought or should be?  Ought and should are mistaken identity.  We do not share generic identities, as if God mass produced us all from the same mold.  I understand God as working on an exception basis, like an artisan creating one-of-a-kind creations.   Revelations 2:17 talks about each of us being giving a “white stone with a new name on it, known only to him who receives it,” this speaks about our one-of –a- kindness.

It is possible to start learning your “name.”  Over the past year I have had the opportunity to co-teach a leadership development program (www.crestleadership.ca).  One of the premises of the program is that good leadership begins with self-leadership.  A key piece of self-leadership is knowing who God has made you to be.  Growing clarity about identity allows you to live a life that is more integrated and intentional.  Learning who you are requires a lot of effort, like an archeologist you may have to scrape away a lot of dirt to find the different identity pieces that have been buried.  This is part of the work that God calls us to - receive our name.  It is beautiful and exciting to watch lives transformed from discovering one’s God given identity.