I can’t tell you how many times over the years I have heard someone explaining someone else’s behavior by saying, “They are just trying to find themselves.” I believe this is the journey that every human being takes because all of life ultimately flows out of our identity. Who we think or believe we are will always determine how we live. Almost every mass societal movement is caused by a generation going through self-discovery. Generally, people try to find their identity from outside of themselves. They look to be accepted and celebrated by the “others” whose opinions they view as the most significant. This can be significant individual others in your life or this world’s collective opinion of success. The spirits of “performance” and “rejection” ride in on this journey of self-discovery. The truth is that performance can never give birth to identity, but true identity can give birth to joyful, extraordinary performance. I think the search for “self” is the ultimate description of what the phrase “being lost” actually means. Often, when we as Christians talk about “being lost,” we are referencing unbelievers who, if they die without receiving Christ as their Lord and Savior will spend forever separated from God. However, it is the “separated from God” part that makes a person lost in the present moment, and hell is just when that present moment becomes forever. Jesus did not come just so that we would escape hell and wind up in heaven, but he came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. He came that we might experience “eternal life,” which is the antithesis of what it means to be “lost.”
John 17:3 says, “This is the life of the ages, that they may intimately experience You, the only true God, and intimately experience Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” We get to experience God through our intimate union with Jesus Christ. The word “eternal” is actually a word that simply means “ages,” and the word “life” speaks of the life of God that is heavenly in nature and goes on forever. Eternal life is simply our intimate experience of the life that Jesus lives, which is heavenly in nature and will go on forever. It is to no longer be “lost,” but instead, to be “found” in Him, and being found in Him, we find ourselves.
“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, is revealed (to you as your very life), then you will be revealed with Him in glory.” We were created for glory, and understanding that is imperative to discovering our “true self,” as Colossians 1:27 says, “Christ in you THE HOPE of glory.”