Identification

Over a year ago now I had a conversation with a friend of mine and he told me some thing that has been very impactful for me in my life and I hope it will be like wise for you. He asked a question, " what is the first thing someone would say to me when they introduce me." So if I were the one being introduced a friend of mine might say, " Hey this is my friend Tucker, he is..." what comes next is so key. What am I most identified by? Where is my identity found, I have gone though life and not as much now but in the last few years my identifying mark has been wakeboarding. I would literally get introduced name first and then " he wakeboards" or a comment about a trick I could do. This while kind of enjoyable at the time began to bother me. My most distinguishing mark so to speak was insignificant. This friend of mine who is an excellent musician made the comment that he desired his mark to be Christ. Where when people thought of him though he is a great musician, they would think, "man I can really see Christ in him." this truly is the only make worth being defined by. The reason this is the only thing worth being defined by is this is the only stable thing. People identify themselves by many things: what school they attend, what their major is, what their career is or any number of things. What happens when the company goes out of business or you can’t afford school any more what then? What will you do then? Some people can't retire because they would not know what to do with their time because all they do is work. What I am proposing is that we find our identity in Christ alone, not in fading beauty or wealth but in Christ Alone. Solomon at the end of his life realizes the uselessness of wealth, work, beauty, all the fading things and writes the book of Ecclesiastes and at the end of the book he says essentially, " what is left except to fear God and Obey His commandments." that is worth identifying with if you ask me the only independent cause of all things!