“We are more than what we do,” and “We are not our jobs.” I have taught, preached and passed on these words of wisdom to those who are “trying to find themselves.” Too often, we Americans do wrap ourselves up in what we do, in our vocations. When we do that, we have a crisis of identity if we are forced to change jobs, if we’re laid off or fired…or if we retire. Suddenly, we are no long who we were. In fact, if one or all of those things befalls us, we feel very lost. I know that because I’ve been there….
In the Bible, Luke 15 is a chapter all about ‘lostness’—a lost sheep, a lost coin…and a lost son. For many years, I would read or hear these parables and think, “Yeah, I guess that happens to some folks.” Then, I figured that the lost sheep was forevermore found; the lost coin now securely hidden away, never to be lost again; and, surely, that prodigal son would stay right there at home for the rest of his days. But, I think differently now….
Last year (2011), we moved from Monterrey, Mexico, to the US after having been out of the country for six years. My identity changed. I went from being “missionary” to “college teacher.” That was not too drastic a change because I had been an “educational missionary,” teaching and training church leaders in Venezuela and Mexico. In fact, in Mexico, my main task was teaching at the seminary and teachers’ college. So, the shift was not huge…but it did leave me floundering as I struggled to understand my new identity as “former missionary.”
Then, last month, after having made perfect peace with my identity as a teacher, it happened all over again. I was encouraged to apply for a staff position on the administrative side of things at our college…so I did. And, I was hired! (Now, the whys and wherefores don’t bear pursuing here, so you can e-mail me about it if you’re curious!) I went from being an English teacher to being—are you ready?—to being an “analyst” in the office of institutional effectiveness and assessment. Talk about a change of pace!
Suddenly, I was ‘lost’ again, trying to figure out who I was—Teacher? Analyst? I had wrapped up my identity in my work—doing the very thing I had cautioned so many against! When my work changed very suddenly, I didn’t know who I was. I was lost.
It was in the midst of all these changes that I came to realize that Jesus was not giving us cautionary tales by way of these parables in Luke. These parables simply tell us about how life is…IS. We sheep are often finding ourselves lost. We often misplace our values. We find ourselves far from ‘home’ time and time again. And, the good Shepherd comes to us; like the woman, we go to scouring our lives to find what we’ve lost; like the prodigal, we wander far away while the Father waits for us to come to our senses and come home…where He welcomes us again and again. These parables are not one-time events; these parables are all about how we are, how life IS.
So, if we don’t find our identity in our work, where do we find it? Finding who we are is important, because if we don’t, we’ll just get ‘lost’ all over again when we face those big certain-to-come changes of life.
I believe we begin to find ourselves when we peel back all the roles we play, take off all the hats we wear. There, underneath it all, we find the unchanging aspects of who we really are. For those of us who are Christians, our identities are built on this foundation—we are followers of Jesus, children of God, conduits of God’s Spirit.
Jobs may come and go, families may grow and shrink, friends my leave or stay, money and things are fickle and frail…but who I am—as opposed to what I do—does not change with the prevailing winds of life. When we grasp this, we will truly know that amazing feeling of having our feet “set…upon a rock” (Psalm 40).
~Jon~
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