Lost identity
Almost all of human minds question about identity. Even though it is not known how many of us have answered that question, based on the knowledge and experience we gained from human history we might have some awareness. Especially from the church where we learn the word of God, we have a bit of an understanding on why we were created and the meaning of our existence.
Our almighty God Who created all in the world, honored man by creating him in His image and likeness. Man is created to praise God’s Name and to inherit His glory. (Genesis 1:26). Man lost his place as a child of God by eating the forbidden fruit. In order to save man The Son of God lowered himself, came down from heaven, was born from Saint Mary, suffered, He was crucified and died on the cross; He was beaten and bled to death and invited us to live by partaking the Holy Communion, His flesh and blood. Lord Jesus Christ liberated the souls that were suffering in hell and paved the path of life for us, for we shall bear the cross and be Christians in Christ as the Lord showed as.
Lord Jesus Christ taught us His holy words; He showed us the true way of living in Christianity which is our true identity. But do we really understand that? Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6) He gave us the name Christians allowing to be called by His name. How many of us know we must pace on the true path?
Worldly living has brought us so much hardship. Our weakness and sin has made us lost. We think we are going in the right path but we are going astray. We have lost our identity therefor we shall stand for a moment and think where we went wrong. The devil our enemy separated us from God for 5500 (five thousand five hundred) years; he made man suffer and enslaved by him; still today we are lost in the world by the traps he set upon us. Where are our brothers that were fooled by wealth, benefits, and fame? The world slowly fooled them showing sparks; he let them fall, and made them enslaved by a bad spirit. Adultery, getting drunk and entertaining in party houses has become habitual activities of some orthodox Christians.
We added another wound on our sickness. Nowadays, Gods punishment is upon us because of our sins. Getting through the world is already hard, death is in front of us and yet we have lost our identity. We need to recognize this and return back to Christ; let’s return to our true self.
Christianity is life. Christ overcame death by His own death; He gave us a true path of life. He gave us hope; He sacrificed Himself for us. Fighting in resilience and bearing the cross gives us supremacy as it is said “the cross is our power.” (Everyday prayer). We will be able to bear the suffering and pass the trial of life, withstand the weight of the world and stand firmly when we live in the suffering Christ beared for us on the cross. We shall not fight sword by sword. This is not the way we are called to live for. This is the way of life fear lead us to. We shall not fall in the trap of devil saying “we shall not die when an enemy attacks us ; but we should fight back and win over our enemy” because that will lead us to a worse fall.
In order to win evil, we should take return back to our true identity which is Christianity that is taken by the devil. When there is war we fear because we have lost our true character. Dying for our faith is an honor it is not a disgrace. Martyrs get the honor of saints, but we lost that sense of Christianity. We need to return from our lost identity to our true identity in time.
Above all, let’s have a heart of repentance. We could give excuses on those we could not forgive because of our lack of empathy; but the true is the excuses cannot justify our mistakes. A human who is created in God’s image and our brother who is created in the same image is the one who is being killed. We shall not even think of killing but now we are doing it in action. What is the use of killing our brother? This is not Christianity. Let’s be wise enough to resent our identity.
Let’s look for our true identity with spiritual guidance; let’s pursue it. A Christian is the one who prays for his enemy and his brother; does not pay back the wrongs that were done to him; does not do harm to those who hurt him; does not beat those who beat him; does not use those who use him; does not curse those who curse him nor does he kill those who killed his beloveds. We shall be patient with those who do us wrong; bless those who curse us; pray for those who are after us. Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us on the cross, was dragged like a sheep in Calvary; He was slapped; He bared all the pain and beating; and yet He prayed for them saying “God forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
With malice, envy and jealousy the devil our enemy spread an evil potion and distort our true self. He took our original identity and separated us from God. Therefore let’s be wise enough to get back to our safe place. Lord Jesus Christ gave us the blessing us to be Christians, His followers. Our Christianity is the representation of our true self; it is where we should be. Let us go back to God, for He is our power, our triumph and hope. He is the one who will give us an everlasting happiness and blessing; so let us get out of our lost identity and get back to our true identity.
May the Lord’s mercy be upon us; Amen!