Overcoming Identity Crisis

Chastity Owens

Contributor

Founder & Clinical Director of Owens Behavioral Health

Let’s face it: America is suffering from an identity crisis. 2015 is marked by increased racial and sexuality tensions. Recently, the Lord told me to write a post about Rachel Dolezal - the former National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) president in the state of Washington. She became infamous on June 15, 2015 when America found out that she had been identifying as a black woman when genetics indicates she was born white.

Rachel’s story was augmented by racial and sexual tensions. On June 17, 2015, a white man, shot and killed nine people in a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina - including the pastor of the church. This hate crime was among many of the shooting deaths of African Americans. Between August 9, 2015 and August 9, 2015, 30 unarmed African American men were killed in police shootings.

Today, African Americans are being slain daily at the hands of police brutality. Coupled with the dozens of gang-related black on black violence on a weekly basis, we are losing a significant amount of black lives to violence. Rachel’s identity of blackness placed her amid the nation’s identity crisis; characterized by America borrowing from the culture of the African American community while murdering its sons and daughters.

Around the same time as Rachel’s identity crisis, Olympian gold medalist Bruce Jenner underwent a gender transition and requested that the nation refer to him as Caitlyn. Bruce said he felt more comfortable as a woman and wanted to be acknowledged as a woman. While society’s reaction hung in a balance, the American public really did not have a moment to process Bruce’s new feminine sexuality.

After his announcement, Bruce’s internet searches began redirecting you to Caitlyn Jenner. The internet - the source of information for many - changed Bruce to Caitlyn in a matter of minutes. That’s powerful! I hope you are paying attention. While Bruce was publicly accepted by mainstream media for his sex change, Rachel said she often felt condemned for her decision to switch her race.

I was puzzled when the Lord told me to write about Rachel because she has not been in the news in months. Imagine my surprise when I saw she once again was in the news when she admitted on the multicultural talk show “The Real” that she was, in fact, born white. Her admittance was received with a standing ovation from audience members. Rachel’s uncertain demeanor convinced me that she still has a ways to go to overcome her identity crisis. This is not a judgement but an observation.

In the same way that Rachel has suffered a physical identity crisis, America is suffering from a spiritual identity crisis. A close read of James 4: 1-12 reveals 3 steps America can follow to overcome its spiritual identity crisis.

James 4:1-12 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor? 

Let’s tackle this identity crisis by jumping onto our first step.


Step 1: Check Your Motives 

Conflict is often a key indicator of an identity crisis. Fights and quarrels evoke external conflict. Unfulfilled desires evoke internal conflict. According to the bible, these types of conflict can cause people to want to hurt each other - even to the point of death. When our wants and desires control our lives to the point that we are willing to hurt each other, that’s when our motives are too deep. When we depend on ourselves to fulfill our desires, it can become an overwhelming distraction because we are operating in an assignment that is not meant for us. That desire can become a distraction. Rather than fulfill our desires, we are to bring our requests to God in prayer (See Philippians 4:6).

Prayer allows us to check our motives. It allows God to look at the heart of the desires, our motives to decide if we have enough spiritual maturity to handle the request. He also looks at the long-term consequences of this request. Some people think they should receive every request they make before God. Lies! God grants requests based on His riches and His glory. Ultimately, the request can either bring us and others closer to Him or it can only fuel our own selfish desires. For this reason, prayer is necessary because it allows us to check the motives for our requests.

Step 2: Submit Yourself to God

                                  

The second step to overcoming an identity crisis is to submit yourself to God. At some point, we have to come to terms with the fact that we are involved in an ever-going battle between God and the devil. God is a gentleman. Unlike the devil, God will not force himself on you. God gives you the option to choose Him. The devil does not. This is why we must actively submit ourselves to God. When we take a step towards God, He comes toward us. When our hearts and minds are focused on Him, He purifies us. 

Submitting to God requires us to deny ourselves - our desires - and follow God. The bible says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 

For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God” - Luke 9:23-27.

Step 3: Know Your Role

The third step to overcoming an identity crisis is to know your role in Christ. After you have submitted to God, He calls us now to be kind to one another. The bible says that we are not to slander one another. We are not to speak against our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are not to speak against the law and judge it. We have a Lawgiver. We have a Judge. We have a Lord. We have a Savior and His name is Jesus. He is the one who is able to save and destroy.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. - Romans 12:1-2.

In addition to our roles as worshippers, we are sons and daughters of God. The bible said that anyone who is led by the Spirit of God is a son of God. We submit to the Lord, not as a slave that is bounded by fear. We have received the Spirit of adoption and we can cry out to God as our Father. His Spirit testifies with our own spirit that we are children of God. (Romans 8:14-16). Hallelujah!

When we receive a revelation of who we are and who we are in Christ, the strongholds of an identity crisis melt away. Therefore you are no longer outsiders (exiles, migrants, and aliens, excluded from the rights of citizens), but you now share citizenship with the saints (God's own people, consecrated and set apart for Himself); and you belong to God's [own] household - Ephesians 2:18-19. Who am I? I am a child of God. Who are you? A child a God. What is America? One nation under God. Despite the fact that America is now characterized with racial and sexual tensions, it does not change our identity. Perhaps it is time for us to return to our first love, check our motives, submit to God and know our role in Christ.

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