Hello, My Name Is...

Believe it or not, this post is not about Christmas!

I have been pondering the issue of identity for a while now. I think it started when my plastic dealer tag started falling off the front of my car. Many people I know have the same model and color of car, so we tend to recognize each other by our front tags. As I contemplated what kind of tag to replace it with, I realized that I didn't want a label that allows people to "sum me up" at a traffic light.

It really shouldn't be that difficult to chose a replacement. Many people put their sports team on their car but since our family cheers for a school neither of us attended it feels a little false to me. We don't have a "place" we vacation regularly that I want to advertise for, nor does my husband's work have tags with their logos.

I have clearly overthought this issue. (Now there's a surprise!) I feel the same way about t-shirts, logo-ed clothing and bumper stickers. Is there really a tag or a sticker that I want to summarize myself with? I suppose I could always be one of those folks who cover their whole car in stickers and messages to prove I am complex and multi-faceted.

Do they make a tag or bumper sticker that says, "I am too neurotic to commit to a label for myself?"

A couple of nights ago when my husband was on call I watched a Nooma video featuring Rob Bell that addressed the subject of identity. The Scripture passage was the story of Jacob's wrestling match with God in Genesis 32. He emphasized the fact that God asked Jacob his name, then he changed it to something more fitting the journey he'd been on. (I love that Jacob also asked God his name too.)

The cinematography was really powerful. For the ten minutes or so that Rob was speaking people were silently removing layers of t-shirts each bearing a different label: their education, their socio-economic status, their insecurities, their strengths. I thought of how powerful the labels are that we apply to ourselves and to others. There are labels about ourselves we want all the world to know, as they indicate that we are successful and good and dare I say "worth something." There are other labels we try to hide, bury and deny either because they are to painful or embarassing.

Isn't the truth of why many of us blog our desire to express ourselves...to be more fully known? Yet, how I cringe and gulp after I hit publish on some of my more raw posts. How naked I feel when I talk to someone in "real life" who reads my blog!

Here are a couple of Rob's quotes that I loved:
"Jesus invites us to be our true selves, yet we get hung up on how we are different from other people. We will never live from our true selves if we are busy comparing ourselves to others."

I was reminded of Romans 12:5-6 from the Message:
"So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.

And Rob's summary:
"Once Jacob admits who he is, God's real work in him can begin."

I am not sure how my rambling about bumper stickers and license plates got me here, but to say that the end of the year and the fresh start of a new one tends to lead people to contemplate their identity. Who am I? Who do I want to be?

Right now I am more than content to be simply be known as an adopted daughter of the King, who generally messes up far more than she gets it right, but knows her Father's love for her is still the same.

P.S. I am still not any closer to deciding what to put on my car. :-)