In this life, everyone seeks someone to hold onto. Many people, seeking to provide stability in their lives, hold onto tradition. In the stage play; Fiddler on the roof, the Father of a traditional Jewish family says: "because of our tradition's, everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do." Well, that did not proved to be true in this stage play, and it is not true in real life. All of us are tempted to shape our attitudes and activities according to established practices instead of seeking God and his ways. Some traditions had a certain flavor to life, but many are guided by traditional standards instead of a personal relationship with a loving God. It is through God's love that we have identity. Tradition, much of the time, hides our need for identity-to know who we are and what God wants us to do.

If your old enough to remember the decade of the '60s, you'll know that young people were no longer accepting the traditions of family and "the establishment"-traditions that centered around such things as church, sports, cards, and homes. They could see, for instance, that it hypocritical to keep a tradition of being "church-going people" without a real commitment to Jesus Christ. Those young people did not let traditions confuse them; they looked at life and ask the question: who am I?

Well, who are we? Do we have an identity? The answer is a resounding yes! Is God's love that makes us somebody. We are loved by the very one that created the world and placed us in it. It is God's love that identifies us with him. He loves us as individuals-as persons. We are persons in the same way that God is a person because we have been created in God's likeness. Then God said: "let us make men in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26). Not only that, in first John 4:16 we are told that God is love and anyone who lives in love is living with God and God is living in him. We are not only made in the likeness of God, but we can live with him in a loving relationship. Christians can know who they are because they identify with God himself through a personal relationship.

The problem getting to know God personally is that we are not born with his kind of life. We know from the Bible that the life of God is spiritual life and that men everywhere are dead spiritually because they are separated from God by sin. Romans 3:23 says: "all have sinned" and in Romans 6:23 we read: " the wages of sin is death"-the result of sin is spiritual death! But the last part of this verse brings as face-to-face with the very life of God. It says: "the gift of God is eternal (spiritual) life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Because Christians have received this gift of spiritual life, they have a personal relationship with God-a Father-child relationship. But, just like a child with its earthly Father, we need to learn to love our heavenly Father and accept his will for our lives. When a child really accepts a fathers love, it wants to please him-to return that love and obey him. It is the same with our heavenly Father. Through loving obedience, the relationship is established, and we know for sure that we belong to God. It is in this belonging that we know who we are.

It is not possible to know God and not know who we are. Do you know who you are? Do you have an identity that does not depend on the ways of men such as custom and tradition? Do you have peace and joy that comes out of the sure knowledge that God is your heavenly Father and that you are going to live with him forever? If you are not certain, ask yourself if you ever really repented of your sin. Repentance, which is turning from the ways of man to the ways of God, opens the way to a personal relationship with God. If the child loves his parents, it is continually, year by year, turning from its own ways to the ways of its parents. In this process, a personal relationship develops. If a relationship is not develop, love between parent and child does not survive. It is no different with a child God. Repentance is not something a Christian does just once-if it is real, it becomes a way of life and causes us to develop in our relationship to our heavenly Father. It is so easy to say: "well I have done that." But before you say that, I urge you to search or heart and know that you are continually turning from your own ways to the ways of God. You may have made a profession of faith and maybe went on to be baptized. But if you do not have peace and joy and that sense of satisfaction and belonging that comes out of a developing relationship with God, you have a need to turn from your ways to his ways. Repentance is the only way to Jesus, and Jesus is the only way to eternal life. He said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father but by me. If you had known me, you would have known my father also." (John 14:6,7) My prayer is that you will make sure that you know Jesus-that you are a child of God. Tell him that you are sinful and that you want to spend the rest of your days turning from your ways to his ways. Realize that because Jesus paid the penalty for your sin on the cross, the result of your sin doesn't have to be spiritual death. Open your heart and receive his gift of eternal life. Then, with a thankful heart, begin to return his love. When you seek to please him, by committing yourself to him in loving obedience, you will realize that the relationship has been established and that you belong to God and his family. Because of this belonging, you will never need to ask the question: who am I?