Self Identification





We are witnessing mass confusion of identities.  Children, youth—all the way up to seniors are struggling with who they are.  Questions abound—perplexity is everywhere.
Am I a male?
Am I a female?
Am I gay?
Am I straight?
Questions regarding roles:
Can a woman ask for a man’s hand in marriage?
Should a woman’s father be asked first?
Who pays the bills?
Who cuts the grass?
Who cooks supper?

Turmoil abounds—we no longer know who we are—what makes us who we are.  It’s mass bewilderment out there!  People are disorientated sexually, morally, and ethically.  Can Air Canada employees smoke pot after their shift?  

When I was a child one of my favourite card games was ‘Who Am I.’  It was a ‘Christian’ card game (whatever THAT means), so all the characters were from the Bible.  There would be clues given and you had to guess who the person was.  Funny—but sad—that question could be asked in grade 1 in our school system or in fourth year university—‘Who are you?’—and you might get a blank stare or a simple ‘I’m not sure.’
David Benner, author of The Gift of Being Yourself, (InterVarsity Press, 2004) sees the answer to the confusion clearly.  According to Benner—one cannot know oneself outside of knowing God.  To know God intimately is fertile ground for knowing and understanding oneself.  Benner quotes John Calvin: “There is no deep knowing of God without a deep knowing of self and no deep knowing of self without a deep knowing of God.”
Benner: “Christian spirituality involves a transformation of the self that occurs only when God and self are both deeply known.”
Ah! It’s the answer!  We have shut God out of culture, and in the process shut out the ONLY true means of knowing ourselves!   Benner goes on to say this: “Self knowledge that is pursued apart from knowing our identity in relationship to God early leads to self-inflation.” God, according to Benner is the ‘only context in which our being makes sense.’  Leave God out—at best you have persons, working diligently at trying to ‘find themselves— at worse you have a biological blob which has no real identity.


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