OK. The title is a
bit misleading. I am not going to
discuss the merits of driver’s licenses, passports, and library cards. Those things are important, and I will
probably bring my line of thinking back around to something like ID cards when
I circle around to my summary (in Part Two).
But I actually want to talk about identity, not identification; although,
of course, there is an undeniable relationship between these terms. Ya feel me?
[Translation: Do you identify
with (understand) what I am saying?]
Who are you? There
are many factors that contribute to your identity. Your family heritage, which includes cultural
norms and expectations; and also genetic inheritance such as physical
appearance, temperament, health conditions, etc. Your community, which includes the
neighborhood where you live, your school, workplace, church, hobbies –
basically any individuals or groups of individuals with whom you interact
regularly. Your chosen inputs, like
reading material, television, movies, and other entertainment decisions. Your name, your face, your skills and abilities,
your education, your experiences, your fashion choices; all of these and more define
who you are, at least in a physical, temporal sense.
Perception is also an element of your identity, from at
least four different angles. First, how
do you perceive yourself? Do you see
yourself as strong, calm, intelligent?
Or do you see yourself as funny, talented, spontaneous? Or perhaps your view of yourself is that you
are reserved, cautious, shy? Your
perception of yourself may change over time, and you may take conscious steps
to alter how you see yourself, based on the idea that others will accept you
more readily if you are someone different.
This internal checklist remains, for the most part, a private matter. You may not even fully recognize it when you
are doing this.
Second, how do you think others perceive you? What you think others are thinking can be
very different from how you see yourself, but it also usually affects your view
of you and the actions you take, or don’t take, to try to alter what you think
others think. Ultimately, you cannot
completely prevent yourself from having a personal opinion of what you believe
to be others’ opinions of you. But you
CAN remind yourself that this will most likely remain speculation. You cannot, in fact, know what others are
thinking. Odds are high that you will be
incorrect about what you think others think about you.
Third, how do others say or demonstrate how they perceive
you? Outside of specifically organized
instances when this opinion is solicited or required (e.g., for performance
appraisals), few of us are going to have people openly sharing with us their
opinion of us. Often, when people share
this type of thing with us, they are intentionally trying to be encouraging or
flattering. This is not to say they are
lying, but probably we are seldom going to receive from anyone, directly and
voluntarily, what their true and full opinion is of our character, traits,
personality, and behavior. Whether they
are trying to pump you up or tear you down, they will not be giving you the
full picture of their perceptions.
Fourth, how do others actually
perceive you? As indicated in the
previous paragraph, this seems unlikely to be wholly revealed to you by any
means. However, whether you ever truly
discover this information is irrelevant to the exploratory exercise in which we
are presently engaged. That is because,
at the end of the day, how you are perceived by others is outside of your
ability to apply any measurable degree of control. Of course, you can change your clothes,
practice unaccustomed behaviors, use different vocabulary, speak
enthusiastically about all of the “right” things – but at that point you are
devoting time and energy to an effort that has about as much chance of
accomplishing what you hope it will accomplish as a flea has a chance of being
adopted by a family of rhinoceroses.
So much for the elements of perception. Point being: who you are is tangled up in a
mostly contradictory and confusing web of perceptions; and perception has a
nasty habit of applying tangible impact on the real world. We need to understand the potential of these
perceptions to cause us to forget who we really are. And the only opinion of who we are that
matters is YHVH’s opinion. This is true
whether you believe in YHVH or not. The
fact that some people claim not to believe in him does not cause him to cease
to exist. Since he created you and has
had his eye on you throughout your existence, he knows you better than you even
know yourself.
What YHVH
thinks of you is what matters, especially from an eternal perspective. It is what we should keep foremost in our
consciousness; over and above the contents of our mental and emotional rolodex*
that keeps track of all those factors we mentioned above. Your identity is in him.
By now, if you are in fact still reading this screed, you
are wondering, “What on EARTH does all of this have to do with the author’s
Hebrew journey? I mean, this is all very
interesting (or not), but I am not making the connection to the processes of
exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith.”
The connection is this: I am
convinced that a solid recognition of who we are – our identity – is fundamental
to our ability to embark on or continue this journey with unshakeable confidence
that we are seriously seeking truth and not just on some kind of distracting
frontage road.
So, first of all, know that your identity is in YHVH, and
that this pursuit includes him. In fact,
it is about drawing nearer to him.
Next entry: Fuller
explanation of the connection between identity and the exploration of Hebrew
roots.
· *
Rolodex ~ an archaic, hard-copy, static method
of organizing contact information; i.e., names, phone numbers, addresses, fax
numbers, pager numbers, etc…
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