LOST IDENTITY by Robert Soto

LOST IDENTITY by Robert Soto

January 15, 2010

Romans 5:10 "For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! "

I don't know if you have ever asked this question before. Who am I? It seems like a lot of our Indian people in the last one hundred years or so have lost who they are. They have lost their identity. They know they are Indian. They might even know what tribe they come from. But that is as far as they go. They remember the stories that have been passed on from generation to generation but as far as they are concerned, they are just romantic stories that have lost their true meaning; well, at least their cultural connection has been lost. Tonight, our Indian church was visited by a family. It was three generations - grandmother, daughter and granddaughter. As I listened to the grandmother she said, "I know my ancestors were Navaho and Apache but that is all I know. It seems like our relatives were ashamed to admit who they were. Now I am left wondering and trying to discover who we were and who we are today."

As I listened I thought about another lost identity. Another victim of a cruel world that stripped a family of their true cultural ties, leaving them to wander for the rest of our lives. As I sit here writing these thoughts I could not help but compare our lost identity to God the Creator. I could not help but think of how for years I wandered with no hope in my heart and no knowledge of the One who truly loved us and gave His life for us. I remember the bits and pieces that people shared of this Creator but that was as far as it went. I wandered lost and stripped from my identity of God my Creator. It was not until one day, I met someone who sat down with me and in a very loving way pointed me back to the spiritual connection that I had to God the Creator through His Son, Jesus Christ. So when we accept Him by faith, we find our identity with God. Paul wrote, "For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son..." It was His death on the cross that pointed us back to God and the discovery of our lost identity.

Robert Soto, Lipan Apache and pastor of:

McAllen Grace Brethren Church
The Native American New Life Center
Chief of Chiefs Christian Church