The question of identity is one I often refer to. The simple question ‘Who am I?’ is one of the most profound things we ever ask. Over the years, I have come to believe that who I am is inextricably bound up in who God is and in my relationship to Him. I cannot really identify myself separately without damaging the person God created me to be.
Michael Card’s latest album ‘The Penultimate Question’ looks at the Gospel of Matthew. He says ‘Matthew wrote his Gospel to a group of Christians who do not yet know they are Christians. They are faithful followers of Jesus who are still members of the synagogue community in Galilee. But the time is rapidly approaching when they will be expelled from the synagogue and from Jewish life. They are about to lose their identities. Then they will be consumed with the penultimate question, ‘Who am I?’ “
The song ‘This Is Who You Are’ attempts to answer that question.
‘Misunderstood and undefined, a stranger to myself,
Incarnate contradiction, I am poverty and wealth.
I can believe and disbelieve,
I can bless and damn,
I’m dying in the darkness of not knowing who I am.
Then rising like a morning sun, the light begins to speak,
In a voice that’s vastly strong yet still so infinitely weak.
It’s roaring like a lion;
It whispers like a lamb;
It’s thundering that who you are
Is wrapped in who I am.
To everyone that’s lost He gives a new identity
That’s grounded in the kingdom and a new reality.
It’s found in loving kindness
And a mercy that is free
You can become the child
That you were always meant to be.’ (‘This Is Who You Are’, Michael Card)