Discovering Identity Beyond Actions: Insights from Psalm 23

A few years ago, I heard a pastor point out that there are zero sheep mentioned in Psalm 23, yet we can’t help but think of sheep while we read it. 🐑 Why? Because the Psalm talks about a shepherd.

The pastor’s point was that I can learn who I really am when I learn who my shepherd is. When we learn who God is, we can truly learn who we are as individuals.

When we taught through Psalm 23 at C3, the idea that I kept coming back to again and again was “don’t base your identity in something that can be taken away from you.”

We get our identities from so many things that revolve around what we do. Go ahead, try to answer the question “can you tell me about yourself?” without including what you do for a living (or without mentioning your enneagram number😂).

Through the last couple of months, so much of what we are able to do has been stripped away. It’s like we’ve been torn away from our views of our own identities.

As we begin to move into a new phase of whatever this is, a question to ponder is “who are you?”

Stop worrying for a moment about what you’re trying to achieve or where you want to end up. Your goals will still be there when you’re done. But, just ponder the question: “WHO ARE YOU?”

I have started a new way of praying where I sort of journal my prayers by just free flow writing whatever’s on my mind and working through it with God. The first day I did it, my heart sank as I wrote these words:

“I often greatly overestimate my ability while I greatly underestimate my worth.”

If I’m being honest with you, I think I’m really good at quite a few things. But, if I’m being honest with myself, I’m just average at a lot of those things and below average at the rest. The scripture “don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought” definitely applies to me.

But, the good news is that none of what I do determines what I’m worth. Every skill and ability that I do have could be taken away tomorrow, and I’d still have the exact same worth in God’s eyes.

The Lord is my shepherd. When I truly know Him, that’s when I can really know who I am.

There are many people who are reeling right now. Maybe you’re one of them. Maybe you feel like you don’t know who you are anymore because you can’t get in your classroom, or step on the field, or run your business, or preach that sermon, or perform that show, or post silly memes all day (wait, we can do that right now 😜).

Those things are all great. And they may be a key part of God’s purpose for your life, but those things have absolutely ZERO to do with YOUR VALUE AND WORTH AS A HUMAN BEING.

I don’t know who needs to hear this: but you are worthy of being loved and accepted. Jesus proved that on the cross.

Maybe the best use of your time the next few days might be taking time to stop basing your value on external things that can be ripped away, but, instead, learn how to begin to see yourself as your shepherd sees you.