So many times we get our calling and our career mixed up. Our career is what we do to earn a living. But our calling is who we are and what we really live for.
Discovering Your True Identity: A Coach’s Perspective
What defines you? I remember one time hearing Coach Tom Landry introduced as, “The coach of the Dallas Cowboys who is a Christian.” Immediately after Coach Landry got up to speak he said, “I am a Christian who happens to be coach of the Dallas Cowboys.”
He made his point obvious: my relationship with Jesus Christ is who I really am, and my profession is that of a coach. So who really are we? If you have said “yes” to Jesus as your Savior and Lord, your identity has changed… you are now a “new person” as the Scripture tells us.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
True Identity vs. Performance
The reason this is so important is that if I define myself by what I do in my career, I will try to find my meaning, purpose, worth, and significance based upon what I do and how I perform.
Here’s an example. If I am an NFL football player, then my importance is based on how I perform as a running back. My worth comes from my last game. Did I experience meaning by only gaining 14 yards for the game and fumbling the football three times? Probably not. But if I scored three touchdowns and gained 150 yards, I am feeling pretty good about myself because my performance—and therefore, my significance—is seen as great.
Embracing Your True Identity in Christ
For the Christian—one in whom Jesus Christ indwells—my true identity is that I am a son or daughter of God Almighty. God loves and accepts His children based upon who they are and not how they performed that day. Knowing this should motivate us to pursue God’s agenda for our lives.
I know as a child of God that His agenda is for my highest good. Everything I long for—meaning, worth, significance—will be experienced in Him if my agenda lines up with His. Trying to find true meaning as a Christian apart from God’s love and plan for my life will cause me to not live fully and result in a colossal waste of my life.
Living in Your True Identity
One of the clearest statements in the Bible about who we are is in Galatians 4. Listen to these verses as your heavenly Father is speaking to you personally about your true identity.
“And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:6-7). ESV
If we really believe and live in the truth that we have all the rights that come with being children of God, our perspective of all circumstances would change dramatically. Paul believed it. That is why he could say in Romans 8:37, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
Think of it: everything Jesus is, we are. We are “co-heirs” with Jesus Christ.
Wow! Believe it and go forth with joy.
