Identity

Identity!... One small word with a powerful meaning.  The dictionary has several descriptions for it but this particular one stood out - "oneness, unity, quality of being united into one".  We are part of the human race - that much we can identify with.  Within the human race lies a multitude of variables within the realm of identity.  This can range from a country origin, family, race, religion, vocation, politics, to name a few.  This identification can unify within that particular entity.  However, it also has the power to destroy when it comes in conflict when identity is not the same.  

Tolerance  is the capacity for recognizing and respecting the beliefs and practices of others.  Within tolerance lies charity and has the ability in understanding  the diverseness of human nature. There are many opposites of tolerance that cause not only disunity but destruction, among them discrimination and bigotry.  An extreme example is annihilation, which seeks to obliterate those who are not "like them in their ideology".  We have present world fanaticism that illustrates this point.  Obviously,  lessons have not been learned from world history in annihilation attempts.

If we turn our eyes to a higher realm, we also find out that we are spiritual beings, made in the image of God and having free will.  We are imprinted with God-like characteristics.... we create - we make things according to our gifts and abilities from the provision of the earth.  We are spirit as God is spirit - we are more than our physical nature.    We are relational beings because our God is relational built for intimacy between the Divine and the human spirit.  As we become awakened to the Presence of God, the scripture John 17:20-26, shows identity in the most ultimate form.  Captioned, Jesus prayed that we would all be one in the identity of Agape Love.

As we are fashioned to be part of a whole in oneness, we are also fashioned to be individual in identity.  As it is with a snowflake, there are no duplicates; you are the only you there ever has been or will be.  Psalm 139:1-3 says  "Lord, you have searched me and known me.  You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar.  You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways"......

Join  me at The Turn-Up Patch on Monday, February 1.   Until then, here is a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson to ponder on....  "What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you."