This is Who I am: Being Found in Love

Several influences attempt to provide an identity for us: philosophy, psychology, spritualism, or hedonism. Another variety of sources that attempt to give us an identity are the titles/positions, prominence, reputation, or family relationship roles that we all participate in. Any one of these is not sufficient within itself to provide an adequate identity--there is a point of failure for each, usually leading to idolatry. So the question is, how do we know who we are? Or, how do we discover our identity?

Continuing on in Luke 15 will provide some insight:

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’20 So he got up and went to his father.“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again;he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate" (NIV).

The Grand Epiphany

When this younger son, "came to his senses" he was "returning to himself," or being "moved toward where he once was." Essentially, the younger son, as we talked in last week's YouTube and blog, realized he was lost and did not belong where he currently was. At this point of epiphany he realized that all he had attempted to do to make himself, or find his identity, only got him in a place of brokenness and poverty. When he came to his senses he began his journey back to where he did belong--in his Father's house.

The Grand Plan--Slavery

The younger son had devised a plan before his return home; he would become his dads slave just to have a place with him once again. He acknowledges that he his no longer worthy to be his son, as he has just insulted his father, and family, by taking and squandering his inheritance with such foolish living. His attempt now is to return to his father's house in any condition possible, as it is a better condition than being lost, poor, and without a place to belong. The younger son was willing to settle for slavery and forfeit his sonship all together in order to be welcomed back into his Father's house.

I wonder how many of us have approached God the same way? Knowing that we've blown it and are willing to simply settle for being God's slave to have a place in his house. Like the younger son, we would rather settle for an identity of slavery because of the great guilt of sin that we have brought upon ourselves.

Like the younger son, we have been offered sonship but choose to settle for slavery. Who told the son he had to return to his father's house as a slave? Similarly, who told us that we have to forfeit our identity as God's children when we foolishly waste our lives in sin?

Too often we buy into the same grand plan that the younger son did--slavery. We take on a slaves identity and learn how to follow the rules so that the Great Master God will not punish or banish us for doing wrong, and when a wrong is committed a self-abased ritual ensues so that we may regain favor with Master God. We see ourselves as slaves of God, yet we're grateful for it because this identity is better than the alternative life we've made for ourselves in the pigpen.

But The Father Said...

It was from a long way off that the younger sons grand plan of being his father's slave would be destroyed. Once the father saw his son cresting the horizon he immediately sprinted toward him, full of compassion and welcomed him with a warm embrace and affectionate kiss. His father would walk him back home, likely through the same roads he left town on, and would tell his servants to get ready for a party. The father put a robe, ring, and sandals on his son, as to restore his place back into the family. The younger sons plan of slavery was met with his father's compassionate actions. 

Two significant things must be noted about the father's actions: 1) his action was initiated because of compassion, and 2) it was the father's actions that restored his younger sons identity as a son. It did not matter how the son was approaching his father, because when the father saw the son returning he met him with a prodigal love that restored his sons identity and belonging. Point being, we can attempt to approach God as a slave, but he will make us his child. 

The most revealing thing the father said of his son was, he "was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found (Lk 15:24 emphasis added). This statement is the headline of the younger sons life up to this point. If an article were to be written about his life, the father's statement would be the title. The younger son, in all his attempts to find himself, only gained death and desolation. The younger son only found himself wandering on a vain journey to nowhere. All of the younger sons attempts to make himself someone of significance failed. Everywhere he tried to find a place of belonging outside the his father's house failed. The only place the younger son found himself, as his father proclaimed, was in his father's house. 

We Find Our Identity When

This parable provides three key takeaways when answering the initial question. We find our identity when: 1) we know where we belong, 2) we shed our self-made identity, 3) we are in relationship with our Heavenly Father and receive his actions and words toward us. 

This last point is the most important, as the centrality of our identity is our relationship with our Heavenly Father. For without God, we are nothing and have nothing. A slave is simply willing to work for this privilege, but a child of God will love God for it and invite others to share in that same love. Our main identity is that of a child of God, and because of that identity we have a place of belonging in the Father's house, and are able to rid ourselves of all self-made, unnecessary identities that the world tries to offer.