If you've seen the interview with Diane Sawyer from a few months back, you have some background on the situation surrounding the individual now formerly known as Bruce Jenner. If you haven't been in the loop, let me quickly summarize what's been happening.
Bruce Jenner was a world-renown athlete who won the Olympic decathlon, thus claiming the title "Greatest Athlete on the Planet." Despite the public attention given to him as the 'ultimate male specimen', Jenner has shared that for most of his life he has felt like he has the soul of a woman. And thus he is now "she" - Caitlyn Jenner. Various surgeries, procedures, and hormone therapies have been part of Caitlyn's regimen to become what you see in the photo above. Bruce Jenner is now gone, and Caitlyn Jenner has replaced him with a new her.
There seem to be infinite angles from which a person could discuss this entire situation (if we can use that term 'situation' - I'm at a loss to some degree of how to properly describe Jenner's transformation). Inevitably for a Christian, the issue of sexuality comes up - what is God's design, what does it mean to be male or to be female. The topics of self-expression and self-determination are worth considering as well. One might also want to discuss a shift in the culture that often affirms (at the lower end) and praises (at the upper end) these kinds of changes (Jenner is poised to receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, an award given to athletes for showing "strength in the face of adversity, courage in the face of peril, and willingness to stand up for their beliefs no matter what the cost." (Click HERE for more information on the Arthur Ashe Award).
(Bruce Jenner - photo credit: Fox News)
All these topics are likely to come up in conversations around the world, around the table, around the water cooler, and even in the local church buildings and small groups. And while the issues of sexuality, the culture, and other topics are part of it, we can't miss the key issue.
The issue is identity. Jenner's desire to be true to him/herself is rooted in the idea that we as humans get to choose who we are and how we express ourselves. While this is a more obvious example of self-defining, we all fall (more than we'd probably like to admit) into the trap of wanting to express ourselves on our own terms. Jenner's fundamental flaw is all too common: thinking that if I get to define who I am and then I get to live out of that identity, then I will finally be happy. But the reality is we don't get to choose our identity. We are a creature, we are created, and thus our Creator has all authority to give us our identity and to tell us who we are to be.
Don't lose me here - I'm not focusing on the idea of gender identity, because while I am fully male, being 'male' is not my primary identity. My primary identity is that of a child of God, redeemed by the Blood of Christ. I am first and foremost a child of God, forgiven, free, loved, adopted, chosen, passionately pursued, and so much more. But it is THAT identity that shapes all my other identities. It is only in light of being re-born in Christ, I live my life as a male, as a husband, as a father, as a pastor, as a friend, as a mentor - as everything. Christ defines me and then shapes how I live out my life.
I want to be clear here. I do not want to minimize the internal struggle that Jenner has gone through.
I also don't want to minimize the many people who may feel many of the same struggles. What I do want to do is point to the fact that this freedom Jenner feels is not a lasting freedom. The Son must set us free to be who we were designed to be, and at the core of all humanity we are designed to be in relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Pray for Jenner. Pray that true freedom and identity is found in Christ. Christ alone can satisfy.
- tC
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