No One More Important

Yesterday I talked about finding your identity in something else other than God. This identity could be found in your work, your role as a spouse or parent or being an athlete or celebrity. The problem with this is, is that when you’re not up to the standard you want to be at or something goes wrong like you lose your job or your spouse cheats or your child is wayward you lose your identity and then where are you at? How are you feeling then? Maybe like a failure or a fool? Would you get depressed or discouraged?

From The Reason for God; Every person must find some way to “justify their existence,” and to stave off the universal fear that they’re “a bum.” In more traditional cultures, the sense of worth and identity comes from fulfilling duties to family and giving service to society. In our contemporary individualistic culture, we tend to look to our achievements, our social status, our talents, or our love relationships. There are an infinite variety of identity-bases. Some get their sense of “self” from gaining and wielding power, others from human approval, others from self-discipline and control. But everyone is building their identity on something.

I was talking to a woman the other night and she was telling me that her granddaughter was everything to her and if she couldn’t ever see her again she would kill herself. She is having conflict with her daughter and for her to see her granddaughter she has to go through her daughter’s ex-husband. She is putting her granddaughter above anything else and look how it is threatening her life. I don’t have children so obviously I don’t have grandchildren so I don’t totally feel what she is going through. I am sympathetic and feel horrible for her. But God’s first commandment is not to have any other God’s. She is making her granddaughter a God and look at how it is affecting her life. We are to love God above anyone and anything. There is no one more important.