How Do You Identify?
Considering the changes in our world and society, I think I would be fine with getting rid of gender identity entirely. (I know that wouldn't work logistically, but stay with me). After all, we are Spirits more than we are humans. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. Our true identity is in a different realm. A realm and life that we will all experience after this one. And in that realm "there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female"... we are spirits (Galatians 3:28).
Considering such a perspective, I believe that the most important identity question for anyone to figure out before they leave this earth might be this one ...
Do you identify as a being of Love or a being of Fear?
Which do you want to identify with, Love or Fear?
It seems like a rhetorical question, and perhaps most of us would say, "I choose Love", but consider this. When we choose to identify as a being of Love, and we choose the pronouns "love / loved / beloved", (see what i did there? 😀) this means we are intending and desiring to be or become patient, gentle, kind, hopeful, caring, and forgiving. Both toward ourselves and others. We intend to cease identifying with all thoughts and emotions of jealousy, pride, irritability, and unkindness. We will do our best to pay attention to our thoughts ("take every thought captive"), transmuting the negative and dark ones into light. And if we notice that an internal "record of wrongs" exists within us, whether against ourselves or others, we will choose to forgive the entire list.
As a being of Love, when we are tempted to worry or fear, we will remember that love does not fear. But, if we do fear, there is an internal being (Spirit) of Love within us who never fears. Some know this internal being as the "Spirit of Christ". If we will ask, this Spirit will sit with us as we recognize, explain, and confess our fears. Christ will comfort us, encourage us, and Christ's love will expel all fear, giving us the perfect example of how we can love others.
Each day that we wake up we must choose again who and what we will identify as. For years I unknowingly identified with worry, anxiety, and fear. It didn't matter that I had other identities (husband, cop, brother, father, heterosexual, or even "Christian"). None of these identities could stop fear, anxiety, and worry from destroying me, and I had to find a new identity. A new way to think, to believe, and a new way to view myself and others. Underneath every identity we may have, at the most foundational level, we either identify with Love or fear. I suggest that we each begin choosing and practicing being people who identify with Love.
My name is Shiloh, and I identify as a being of Love.
Yes!!!! Awesome!!!