Axios Solutions
When you were a kid, you may have had many ways to identify yourself: activities related to grade school, family life, and extracurriculars like clubs, sports, and music. Perhaps you went to college and identified with university associations. When you began your career, you may have claimed a particular profession (or professions) or hobby as your identity.
Maybe you simply see yourself as one person in the big mosaic of humanity.
Why does it even matter, you’re asking? Well, that’s the thing—knowing your identity hugely impacts your leadership and your role in the marketplace. How you lead and work is directly tied to who you are.
Who Are You Really?
Among all those labels you might claim, who are you exactly?
Are those labels or identifying factors truly your identity? What if those labels were suddenly taken away—what if you couldn’t continue doing what you do everyday? Would you still be secure in your identity?
Knowing your identity is a crucial part of personhood and maturity because it affects and informs everything you do including, and perhaps especially, your work (Ephesians 2:10; 4:1). How you see yourself affects how you lead your team and how you interact in your organization and marketplace. Your identity is involved in how you take care of yourself and how you treat the people around you. Identity impacts how you view the world and how you work, play, worship, and rest. Knowing your identity helps you have a healthy work/life balance and lets you rest (Matthew 11:28) instead of strive.
What Is Identity?
There are all kinds of theories on identity from the world of psychology, some better than others. And a quick google search of the word produces endless results. Our culture as a whole is preoccupied with identity and how it relates to just about everything these days. So what exactly do we mean when we talk about identity?
Merriam-Webster mainly defines identity as “the distinguishing character or personality of an individual.” It’s also used to describe a “sameness” or “oneness” with a particular entity—like all of those labels you might adopt. But we want to talk about it in terms of that first definition: your “distinguishing character or personality.”
Identity is how you might answer the question, “Who are you?” but without using any of those labels. Knowing your identity apart from labels is a crucial part of how you operate in the world, relate to people, care for yourself and others. Your identity is central to everything you do and it is who you are at your core being. Your identity is, fundamentally, a spiritual realization of who you are in Christ (Galatians 2:20). It’s not just what you put on your business cards or how you introduce yourself. It’s deep-seated knowledge of who you are, and whose you are.
Axios Solutions is dedicated to helping you know who you are and how that affects everything you do. At Axios, we believe that with Christ at your center, your identity will be secure and your striving will slow to a healthy overflow of your soul. And when your identity is resting in Christ, you’ll be more comfortable with who you are, no matter what titles or labels you may have adopted throughout your life. Some future blog posts will be dedicated to helping you know what it means to be Christ-centered, and how the Axios Difference can help you get there.
When you understand your identity and how crucial it is for your identity to be Christ-centered (Romans 8:9), it changes how you live and move. Slowly but surely, you’ll stop striving for the next best thing and be able to rest in your Christ-centered identity, knowing that nothing can change that or take it away.
You’ll know who you are and whose you are (2 Corinthians 5:14-21), and that’s really, truly, all that matters.
If you’re not exactly sure how to go about understanding your identity, connect with Axios Solutions. Bart and his team offer pastoral care and counseling, and they offer in-person or online sessions. Connect with Bart to begin finding your Christ-centered identity.