Youth and adults today struggling to ground their identity

Recently, I was speaking at a conference in BC for youth workers and youth pastors. They began the conference by taking a live poll of the audience, asking: What is the number one issue your youth are struggling with today? As the audience used their phones to cast their vote, identity quickly took top spot. This confirmed what research and observation have been indicating for the last several years. Youth, and I would include adults, are struggling to ground their identity. 

Besides the normal struggles of adolescence, identity has become a unique crisis because of its scope. People are struggling with all three aspects of identity: personal, communal, and spiritual. This historical moment has created the perfect identity storm where all three are being challenged simultaneously. 

In light of this, I recently finished working on a year-long project with Apologetics Canada and Fargone Media called Branded: A Series on Identity. The goal was to create a resource to help churches address these three issues of identity. We filmed this three-part series in the beauty of British Columbia: Tofino, Revelstoke, and Desolation Sound. Each location set the backdrop for an identity story related to these three interconnected aspects of who we are. The story video is then followed by teaching from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7.

In Tofino, we told two intersecting stories regarding personal identity. Using metaphors from the ocean and surfing, the narrative highlights the struggle of personal identity from the perspective of a young adult facing the challenges of life followed by a father preparing his daughter for life. Both are true stories, the second one being of Troy and his daughter. Troy works with Apologetics Canada and helped co-create the series. Troy was born an orphan in Jamaica and was adopted into a loving family in Canada. Until his daughter’s birth, he had never seen a blood relative. Troy shares his journey of understanding his personal identity and the challenge of parenthood. Specifically, he shares his father’s heart as he seeks to guide his daughter into a solid personal identity from what he has learned from Jesus.  

Jesus teaches on identity many times but the most famous is his Sermon on the Mount. After studying this scripture over the last year, I would retitle it The Identity Sermon. Jesus begins by teaching on what has been called The Beatitudes, which can be a little misleading. Beata comes from the Latin beatus meaning blessing. Basically, Jesus is giving instructions on how to live a blessed, or flourishing, life. His answer however is completely backwards from what culture has historically taught making this a counter-cultural message throughout the ages. For example, Jesus begins by teaching in Matthew 5:3 (NIV), “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Culture, especially in the hustle of the 21st century, preaches the exact opposite; it’s the rich in spirit that are blessed for theirs is the here and now.

What Jesus is teaching is quite profound – either your circumstances define your identity or your identity defines your circumstances. Which is it for you? As with many things Jesus says, this can be understood in two ways: it’s immediate implication and future application. First, if the kingdom of heaven is your inheritance than you are blessed no matter your circumstances, even if you are poor in spirit. This of courses raises the question: How do I inherit the kingdom? The story of the gospel that Jesus lived and taught is that you have been graciously adopted into the kingdom. You are an heir to the kingdom of heaven, not because you earned it – you can’t earn adoption, but because in faith through Jesus, you received it. Our identity then is founded in God’s love for us. Secondly, the poor in spirit are better positioned to inherit the kingdom because they know they don’t have it and can’t earn it. This was powerfully illustrated to me by a young adult I recently met with who was ready to end her life. After seeking to be rich in spirit according to the world’s standard she found it did not satisfy and realized it was time to look elsewhere. She asked me to introduce her to Jesus.

If you want to learn more about this topic of identity or know someone else who does, join Troy and myself for the Apologetics Canada Conference on March 3-4 at Northview Community Church in Abbotsford, BC. The theme of the conference this year is BRANDED: Rethinking Identity.  www.apologeticscanadaconference.com

Identity Crisis part 2

Identity Crisis part 3