Dear friends
Do you recognize the letters above? Do they mean anything to you? Maybe I haven’t put yours in? Mines there! Can you pick it?
If you haven’t headed down this particular rabbit hole before by venturing into the world of personality tests, then you may not be aware that these are all personality types from the Meyers Briggs Personality Test. I’m sure you’re all far too wise to waste your time hunting around and searching for clues to your personality and identity. However, in recent moments of severe study avoidance, I have discovered all sorts of interesting things about my personality. For example, the Disney Princess I am most like is Princess Jasmine and I’m most similar to rocky road ice cream. Important Stuff!
Jokes aside, the issue of identity is a big one today. Books, quizzes, talks, tests, and so many ways to look and discover your true self, to work out who you really are to know yourself. It’s almost like we can’t function without having a full definition of who we are.
As Christians, I think we know who we are. We know our identity is in Jesus. I think we sometimes need reminding of it, and we sometimes need to remind ourselves, but we know.
All of the other things we are: our personality, our family, our country of birth, our job, our friends, our gender, and our achievements form us. They shape the person God created us to be. God created us each uniquely and gifted us with many gifts.
However, sometimes I know I can get very get lost and distracted by all the other things. The wonderful skills and gifts God has given me become more important than my identity as a much loved child of Jesus.
In John’s Gospel and 1 John we are told we are children of God. This is who we are first and foremost before anything else and above anything else.
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
John 1:12
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
1 John 3:1
Being children of God is the essential part of who we are. It isn’t just a part of our identity; it is our identity.
How do you respond to being a child of God? What difference does it make to how you identify yourself? As a child of God how do you make him known to others? How much time do you spend learning about Jesus’ identity and genuinely knowing him?
Have a great week.
Jane Finlayson | AKA (Princess Jasmine)
Ministry Trainee | jane.finlayson@trinity.church