Identity theft is so prevalent these days
Identity theft is becoming an increasingly common problem in the United Kingdom, as fraudsters discover more and more ways to get hold of the information which is required to steal someone’s identity.
There are, of course, many ways a thief can steal your identity. The most common is financial fraud using information they have accessed about you, possibly through information gained through social media, online banking, and much more.
To suffer such criminal activity from the identity thief causes great anxiety and personal loss.
If we suspect someone has gained illegal access to information about us and that they have accessed your bank account, then we would not think twice about contacting the police authorities, our bank, and so on.
However, it is so easy to allow events and circumstances, and, as a Christian, the devil himself, to steal our identity. What I mean is this. Do we know who we are and whose we are? What is 'identity'? I guess it has to do with how you define yourself and what it is that defines you.
We often define ourselves through our jobs, our successes, our appearance, our sexuality, and so on. But do these things tell us who we are, who we really are? In church leadership, our identity is often deeply rooted in the title we hold and the work we do. So who am I? I am a pastor- I am a rector- I am a husband- I am a father and so on. Again do these things tell us who we are or simply what we do and the kind of relationship to others that we have.
What happens if you lose your job and title? What happens when you retire? You can no longer identify yourself with that particular role or that title. If your identity is so caught up in these things then you may struggle to find the real you.
As a Christian Leader, indeed as a Christian, there is an identity you hold and when you grasp this identity then you are much stronger because who you are in Christ, once realized, can never be taken from you, even though events and circumstances may seek to, and sometimes achieve, eroding your true identity- eroding in the sense of eating away at the deep-seated truth of who you are in Christ.
It is vital to know who you are in Christ. There is a security that comes with knowing that no matter what other people may say of you, or behave towards you, they can only erode the secure foundation of knowing who you are in Christ if you give them permission to do so.
In Christian leadership, you can be sucked into thinking that your work and your title determines who you are. If this takes a hold of you then you can miss the beauty and strength of simply knowing, that whatever you do, you are not what you do. As one person said, we are human beings, not human doings.