It is interesting to see what people ascribe to for their identity and to note their perceived value as a human being. Last summer, I was at the National VFW Convention and met the national commander in chief along with a fellow VFW commander from Mississippi. In the VFW, commanders are given a different color cap to wear when their unit achieves certain things. This other commander had earned a different color cap, and I had not yet done that. The national commander in chief looked at both of us and commended him and then said to me, “You need to get him to give you some coaching.” She might as well have slapped me and told me that I was a failure.
We do that in all areas of life. I know a young girl who could not make cheerleader in the school where she was. The family moved her to another school and she made cheerleader there. However, she was not encouraged to do activities to develop her critical thinking and deeper perspectives about life. What will her identity be when she is a wrinkled, heavy-set senior adult and can no longer cheer?
When we let these external things define our value, we mess ourselves up and make ourselves sick in mental and physical health. We stress out in relationships and finances. We have deteriorated all over.
That is not what God intended for us. In Genesis 1:26, we are told that God made us in His image. He loved us so much that even with all of our ugliness in sinful humanity, God let His only Son die a cruel death and live again past that to restore us to God’s created design for us.
That national VFW commander in chief insulted me when she suggested that my human value was tied up in the color cap I wore. We insult God when we think that some ridiculous item of life here defines our value rather than being His image-bearer.
