Identity

I'm Sorry I haven't posted in a while...I guess I just really didn't have anything worth saying.

Sorry...Switching topics (not like I stayed on that one very long!!), we have recently been doing a study on identity at our church. Our pastor has been walking us through the different ways we form our identity. A couple of them were - Peer identity (which is the main one I want to talk about), family identity, and Spiritual Identity. Like I said I really want to address the peer identity.

My pastor explained it this way - Peer identity is when you are standing in the middle of a circle and getting pounded by snowballs from every direction. The snowballs being thrown at you aren't necessarily clean by any means, but they have all the dirt and sticks and stones packed into them. It's all just one big ball of dirty, snowy, sticky stuff getting thrown at you from every direction....(sorry, that is the best I could explain it)

Now if we think about that for a second that is a very good illustration of peer identity; because in real life we get different ideas thrown at us from every direction. We have ideas being thrown at us from people who aren't christian - ideas being thrown at us from our christian friend - ideas being thrown at us from our older friends - ideas being thrown at us by people that work with (or for)...the list could go on.

What is really important for us to realize is that we tend to embrace different things inside different crowds that we are in; for instance, if we are inside a crowd that dresses a certain way we will probably dress that way when we are around them. If we are in a crowd that talks a certain way, most likely when we are around them, we will talk that same way ect... I think teens of today rely so much on fitting in that they really don't have a real them...do you kinda get what I'm saying? I mean, for me, I have trouble with that all the time. Around certain people, certain music and movies are cool; but around other people, the same movies and music are not so cool anymore.

I have three awesome friends that are really teaching me about this identity principle. They are real. It doesn't matter who they are around: the same music is cool - the same movies are awesome - the same scripture passages are incredible. I have disagreements with one of them ALL THE TIME when it comes to music. I don't really disagree on anything with one of my other friends but her opinions are very original and what's more important......SHE DECIDED WHAT SHE LIKED AND DISLIKED.....I know that sounds radical (maybe it's just me) but they all don't really rely on different peoples opinions. I'm not in any way saying that they are unteachable. In fact quite the opposite is true. The one that I disagree with all the time on music...well I'm the one that first introduced her to some newer Contemporary Christian Music.


Anyway, I think some valuable lessons we can learn from these people are

1. - You really don't have to fit in. ( I mean to a certain degree yes; we are told to be in the world but not of the world)

2. - It's alright to be yourself. (You don't have to be somebody different for each group of friends that you hang out with. It's alright to like what you want to like because you like it.)

and 3. - Still be teachable. ( I have run into so many people that do not rely at all on different peoples opinions but are so unteachable that they really won't associate with you unless you believe what they believe. Please don't be this way - in a way this is worse than being double-faced (figuratively speaking, of course)

I hope this jumbled mess of words has actually made sense to some people...God bless

David L.