Have you ever heard of a web site called MySpace? Chances are, if you are webminded or have kids that are webminded, you have heard of it. If not, then let me explain. MySpace is a web site that allows a person to create a web page detailing their life. It can include pictures, stories, a complete biography, and just about anything else.
MySpace has become a youth phenomena. Kids from coast to coast update their sites more often than they brush their teeth. Some people like to talk about themselves and a webblog gives them the opportunity to do that. They write notes to each other and keep in touch and there is nothing wrong with that.
I have heard that it can be fun to surf around on MySpace just reading peoples profiles. So I did. I spent an hour surfing MySpace and found a lot of people write about stuff that I have no interest in. I don’t care if they like to pick up Cherios one by one and look for celebrity faces. I don’t care what their favorite band is or favorite video on YouTube. I guess that means I’m old. But with age comes wisdom and it didn’t take me long to realize that some of the bloggers on MySpace have no problem taking liberty with their cyber lives.
Many MySpace users don’t always tell the truth about themselves because in cyberworld, you can be anyone you want to be, you can embellish at will. You can be as rich and famous as you want to be or have as much drama in your life as you need. The cyberworld has no boundaries so who you say you are is who others will perceive you to be.
There is a new website that even plays on this. It’s an entire fantasy world called Second Life. Twelve months ago the membership at Second Life was 100,000. Now, only 12 months later membership to more than 2 million. Second Life is an entire cyber world that let’s people pretend to be whoever they want. They create a cyber body called an Avatar and live in cyber houses on cyber streets with few rules and no limits except imagination.
Although the cyber world phenomena is primarily utilized by the up and coming generations, people of all ages can be tempted to pretend be someone that they are not. There is real life in which we work a mundane job, go to school, take out the trash, see our spouse early in the morning, live in an average house on an average street and have a few friends.
Then there is the life we think we should have. A life like everyone has on Grey’s Anatomy full of drama and excitement. A life where we are the life of the party and no party is a real party unless they party with us. The problem is that the lines between the real world and the cyber world are becoming blurry for many people. The truth us that just because someones MySpace page or Second Life site states how happy and fulfilled they are, their real life may reflect the opposite.
All of us are tempted from time to time to portray ourselves as more popular than we really are. I mean who doesn’t want their neighbor to think that they have the perfect family. Who doesn’t want the extended family to think the marriage is perfect? And one of the biggest reasons for pretending to be something that you’re not is to make other people think you have more money than you actually do.
I think we have a tendency to pretend that we are someone that we are not because we want to be somebody special. Nobody wants to be just anybody. Everybody wants to be somebody. Make sense? You, me, we, all of us want to be someone that everyone knows something about. In other words, everyone wants to be someone special. The truth is that our identity cannot be created in a virtual world like Second Life or written about on MySpace. If you try and create your identity on anything but the truth, you will never escape the limitations of cyberspace and find real joy in the real world.
If you are unhappy with the real you, don’t make up another you in cyberworld or settle for long term discontentment, find out who you are by looking to the source of life.
WHO AM I?
My identity was created by Christ.
The Bible says: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalm 139:13 NIV
You were not made on an assembly line in China. Nobody bought you on E-bay. Your identity was not generated on Second life. You have been created by God and you are unique. With God, there are no accidents. God made you with freckles on purpose. He made you short on purpose. He made you tall on purpose. He made you blonde or brunette or a red head. God made you beautiful, that’s what he did. You might not like the way you look but God does. He takes great joy in you.
But sometimes it’s hard to take great joy in what God has made. It’s hard to like ourselves. As we get old we get grey or lose our hair. Our bodies change and we get wrinkles where we don’t want wrinkles and gain weight where we don’t want to gain weight. And then we get frustrated with who we’ve turned into. We are not as successful as we want to be, we are not as wealthy as we think we ought to be, and don’t feel as happy as we think we should feel. I remember talking to a man several years ago who was in his mid forties. He was going through a mid life crisis and after a long time of talking in circles about his career, his family, his dashed hopes and dreams and everything else then he finally looked at me and said: “I don’t even know who I am anymore.”
It’s easy to forget who we are. It’s easy to get off track and a little confused because life is tough and it comes at you fast. The good news is that you and I have been created by Christ and we will never become just a number to him. He made us and he loves his creation. He made you and me unique.
A few years ago we were going to send a team from Freshwater on a missions trip to the CZ so we ran an ad in the local paper asking for people to donate their cars for a tx credit. Then we would sell them and make money for the missions trip. We would give them a tax credit and everyone would come out ahead.
I remember one call I took from a wonderful person who described their car to me. They had a 1984 Buick with 200,000 miles on it. It had rust all over every panel and all four tires were flat. She said the brakes needed work, the transmission needed work, and the motor didn’t run. But the interior was in great shape so she kept insisting that I take the car even though it wasn’t even movable.
I realized that sometimes my life gets that way. Run down, flat tires, motor is weak, transmission doesn’t work, but as long as I look good on the outside nobody will ever know that I’m a wreck on the inside. And I’m convinced that some think that if they really try hard, nobody will even know that they are lonely, hurting, scared, anxious, going through a midlife crisis or struggling with pain on the inside.
What we need is a new start. Not just a fresh coat of paint and a little air in our tires, we need a rebuilt motor to get us moving in the right direction again.
My identity is rebuilt in Christ.
The Bible says:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV
This means that if you allow God to change your heart, you will become a new person. Not a new cyberperson like on Second Life or some polished person like on MySpace. God will rebuild your motor and change you from the inside.
I realize that we are all over the board here. Some of us have been Christians for years and others of us are just getting going. But all of us need to be reminded that we are a new creation in Christ because life gets messy and when it gets messy we have a tendency to try and cover it up, to gloss it over until one day we finally realize that the life we are living and the life we think we should be living are completely different.
Maybe you used to struggle with anger. At the drop of a pin you would just go off on your anger tantrums. Then over the years you mellowed. But deep down inside you can feel the fires raging again and you don’t like it.
Maybe you used to struggle with sin. You battled this one particular sin for years and you finally thought you had it under control but you really don’t. It’s still there you just know how to hide it better.
Maybe pride has crept back into your life. You have started judging people here and there and deep down inside you feel like you are just a little bit better than everybody else. But you know the truth, deep down inside you feel insecure and those feelings are reoccurring again.
You may be a new creation in Christ but that doesn’t mean that your identity won’t take a little maintenance from time to time.
How do we keep our identity in Christ?
• Renew it everyday.
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Romans 12:1-3 NIV
The key to renewing your mind is to renew it on a regular basis. It’s kind of like preventative maintenance on a car. If you wash it on a regular basis and change the oil and fix the minor problems you usually don’t get blindsided with an unexpected major expense.
We renew our minds by praying daily, reading our Bible daily, worshipping weekly, tithing, and connecting with other Christians who also want to live out their real faith on a regular basis.
MySpace and Second Life are cybersites that allow the user to become anyone they want to become. Myspace can be fun to keep in touch with friends but it shouldn’t be used as a place to expose the real you. Instead, find the real you in the real God, the one who created you from the womb and who loves you to this day. Renew your identity in Christ because all of us need maintenance. And most of us, live in the real as the real you everyday because God won’t accept any imitations. That’s something to text your friends about. AMEN.
