Children of God and Fight Club



Angie and I went up to Family Camp at Diamond Arrow earlier this week to see some friends and share in that night’s service with some fellow believers. The speaker, Steve Campbell, gave a message on our identity as children of God and a little bit of what that looks like and doesn’t look like. As he talked about what it means to be a child of God and as he spoke I could not help but hear Tyler Durden speaking to me.

You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your khakis.

But more than just this, I heard a different, more hopeful, voice ring through Steve’s message. Some might say the voice of God. Instead of denying our worth as human beings, like Tyler did, this voice reinforced it. As the message was preached I was told us of our worth as children of God.

You are special. You are a beautiful and unique snowflake.

I was reminded that being a child of God is an identity that is beautiful and holds meaning. Being a child of God is a blessing beyond anything I can truly grasp. As the message went on I was hit yet again with a Biblical truth told by Tyler Durden. A truth that keeps so many of us, myself included, from fully assuming this identity.

It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.

We need to lose the need to please people. We need to lose the desire to look respectable in the eyes of the world. We need to lose the identity we find in our job. In our bank account. In order to fully live as children of God we must lose our identity that the world holds as our end and purpose. We need to lose the identity that the world loves so that we are free to to assume the identity God has for us. An identity characterized by love for God and love for people and true stewardship (Mr. Webster: the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care) of God’s creation. An identity that loves God thus moving in us to care for the orphan, widow and stranger. An identity that yearns for justice and always demands mercy above sacrifice. An identity that is truly worth reaching for.



Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Listen, Read, Theology on August 7, 2009 | There are currently 1 Comment

One Response to “Children of God and Fight Club”

  1. kurt Says:

    i think you missed a word there in that first tyler durden quote. but seriously, stephen campbell was dead on. i think it is entirely too easy to find our identity in things other than the fact that we are His and He is ours and we are His kingdom of priests. i think it would be more difficult to confuse that identity with the shallow facets of our lives (plumber, nerd, 30k/year, american, etc.) if we lived in a country where we weren’t free to worship whatever God we choose. if saying you were a Christian meant you could get killed, then maybe it would be more defining for us. instead, we choose to worship these other things that then begin to identify us, as if they mattered at all.

Leave a Reply