The world tells you that your identity is whatever you want it to be, whatever advantages you. And at the drop of a hat, you can change it, you can rewrite it, you can alter it, you can twist it. But we're watching an entire generation fall under that pressure. Cracking the code on your identity coming up today on the Cleave Today Show. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr.
Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. Welcome back to the Clearview Today Show. We have got a great conversation on board for you guys today.
We've been going through the book of Job, and so many people have been writing in and saying that they're so thankful. In fact, Dr. Shah, I got someone actually wrote into the show and said that our show was on the top of their Spotify wrapped for 2026. That means for the entire year, that's amazing. They have listened to nothing more than they've listened to the Clearview Today show.
I got a text from another person who is, she's local, and she said, hey, just wanted to let you know, Clearview Today made my Spotify wrapped. Yeah, that's pretty much for the benefit of those like me who do not know what you're talking about what is that spotify rapped basically just means at the end of the year it's year right now interview in the year it's not your year in review like so for 2025 it pulls the top like top songs you listen to top artists you listen to top podcasts and so for these individuals clear view today was their number one top five or was the number one yeah yeah i think this person said clear view today with dr robin shot got my number one top spot more in hashtag spotify rapper yeah that's awesome all we can say is thank you thank you thank you yes absolutely we've been having a great time talking about the book of job and we're talking about it again today and we're looking at different aspects of job right we're not just looking at like what does it mean to suffer we're going to talk about that but we're talking about job's identity crisis and we talked about that a little bit on the last show dr shot but do you want to just kind of recap this this matter of who am i you know why how does that come out especially in the story of job well so last uh show we talked about job's identity and how it was based on his uh memory and his destiny i think we ended it somewhere there but we couldn't go Beyond that, and to properly understand what true memory is all about and what true destiny is all about, we need to first. Kind of understand the best possible way we can the traditional identity markers. And I'm getting this information from Brian Rosner's book.
So, and I think we may not have gotten as far as the memory and destiny, but we're going to cover that today. Right, yeah.
So, the traditional identity markers, we looked at, for example, race, ethnicity, and Nationality. That's one of your first identity markers. Then comes culture. Whether you grew up in the South, North, whatever. Sure.
Gender sexuality. This is one group that is being exploited more than any other in our generation. Physical mental capacity. Family of origin. This again.
I'm not going to say it's being exploited as much as it's being rewritten. The narrative is being redrawn. And. You know, parents do the best they can. I know there are some bad people out there who should not be parents, but.
Somehow, they are parents. We're not talking about those kinds of people. We're not talking about the abusive ones, whatever that abuse may be. We're talking about just Parents who are doing the best they can. They protect their children.
They try to Keep them from making the same mistakes that they did. They don't just carte blanche give them permission to go stay anywhere they want to. My parents had a curfew for me. We never used the word curfew. Curfew was usually that word was used if there were riots in India.
So, you know, but that's where the word comes from. Yeah. Um. But I was Expected to be home like 9:30, 10 at night. Right.
I should be home. Right. Unless there was something going on that I could have to be a little bit later. But all this business of 10, 11, 12, 1 o'clock wasn't. It wasn't.
It wasn't happening. Mom and Dad didn't play that. And at times it bothered me because some of my parent friends were You know, their parents did not care. And I'm like, man, I wish my parents would just leave me alone.
Now having been a parent Are four grown children. Our oldest one is 30, our youngest one is 18. Nineteen nineteen nineteen nineteen I totally understand why my parents did what they did. Oh, yeah. They were protecting me.
They were trying to make sure that I would not go down the wrong path because after a certain time at night, nothing good happens. That's right. Yeah. Man, that sounds just like my parents. That's exactly what they told me.
Yeah, nobody's making good decisions after 11:30. Nothing. My dad always said nothing good happens after midnight. Nope. And I remember as a teenager thinking, like, oh my, what is it up with my parents?
What is their deal? Like, my friend's parents aren't this strict, but you're absolutely right. Like, coming on the other side of parenting, it's like, no, no, my parents cared. Where I'm not saying my friend's parents didn't care, but you know, there was a level of strictness that came with my parents that indicated, hey, I care about your well-being. I want to know where you are and I want to know that you're safe.
Well, I just can't think of any single adult who ever looks back on their life and wishes, I wish my parents just let me do more. I'm sure that they're out there. But at the end of the day, you do grow up and you realize that that structure and that discipline is there for your betterment. Yeah, but you at least understand where your parents are coming from, especially becoming a parent yourself. Yeah.
So. you know, the right now the trend is to, um Rewrite the narrative.
So your parents who were protective now become abusive. The parents who were very involved in their children's lives to make sure that they don't miss out on anything, or they want to make sure that the children don't grow up feeling like my parents were not there for me.
Now they are being labeled as intrusive. These are parents who just don't have a life of their own, so they're constantly into the children's business. And so we have to now distance ourselves from our parents so that we can maintain our peace. We can keep our peace. Right.
Because that's a form of abuse now where you have a tight hold on your children's time and their efforts. It's no longer protection, now it's control. That's right. So You know, the family of origin is very important, but unfortunately, that's being rewritten. Age depends on what generation you come from.
It does impact your personality, your identity. Relationships: good, bad, ugly. They also are. Part of the traditional identity marker. And I can say a word or two about everything, but we've already covered that.
Occupation, possessions, religion, personality, and character. All these make up. Your identity. And so we're looking at all these 11 things and we're seeing these similarities between like the this hypothetical person that we're defining their identity and with us and also with Job as well. And so where does that come into the discussion?
Like how do we how do we get from okay, who am I? Oh, okay, this is who I am. Is that all there is to it? You know what I mean? Like, where does the discussion go from there?
Well, and you said last time, too, this is sort of contributing to almost like a midlife crisis at every age. Right. This isn't no, this is no longer like the 50-year-old or the 40-year-old. This is sort of at every stage of life, even as young as the teenage years, all the way up through someone who's in their 60s, 70s. They're sort of like trying to answer this question: who am I?
Or even for the people who are like trying to rewrite this, are these things fixed and stolen? You know what I mean? Like, if this is who I am, if this was my upbringing, if this was the people that I was exposed to, but I don't like who I am today. Am I the sum of all these parts or is there something I can do about this? The world will say, This is what you're bound by.
So do whatever you can to bring happiness into your life. Trash those parts of you that don't. Help you. Exaggerate those parts that give you a leg up. Rewrite the narrative any way you want to.
Don't let any moral judgments keep you from achieving. What will bring you the greatest success and satisfaction? Don't let anyone stand as an authority to tell you how you can live your life: what's true and what's false and what's right and what's wrong. On and on and on. This main character energy.
We talked about that, I think, a little bit. Main character energy is like that confidence, that charisma, that self-assuredness that we often see in the main characters in comic books and movies and favorite shows. Bring that main character energy. You are the star. You are.
the center of attention. Don't let uh anyone Make you a supporting cast member in there? Show. Right. You be the leading cast.
You be the main character of your life. And That you know that We're going to come back to that because I think there is some truth in it. But it's also full of errors. Right, well, because it's not coming from the right place. And I think that was one of the things that we were, we don't want to rush to the end to talk about, because I think that is a good point.
Most Christians will say that's just a lie. You're not the main character. And I like how, you know, because I know where the conversation's going based on your sermon. But I just love the way that it ends, you know what I mean? Because God has a plan for every person and every story is very different.
And so, all of these things I think are contributing to this question of: am I stuck here? Am I all of these things? Can I even rewrite them if I try to? One of the things you said in the last episode we recorded, Dr. Shaw, was: you know, the heart behind it is there.
Like, don't be self-centered, don't be egotistical, don't be prideful, that kind of thing. But. If you say, I'm not the main character, God is the main character. Who's sitting in the director's seat? That's right.
God can't be a character in the story. God is the director of the story. That's right. That's exactly right. And that's something.
We don't need to um Hand over to the world. We need to hang on to that. Absolutely. Because God has fearfully and wonderfully made us. We are the main characters in our story, but for a different reason.
We ultimately perform to bring glory to God.
So don't just immediately say, Oh, get out of the way so that Jesus can shine. Of course. But how we live, how we act, how we behave before a watching world is how Jesus shines through us. That's right. Of course, he's shining already, but through us means I have to perform a certain way.
We were sitting at lunch when we first started talking about this, and this conversation led to a lot of different paths. One of them was the sermon. One of them was this show that we're doing, but then another one is something that we're going to reveal much later down the road, this really cool creative venture. But one of the things you said that stuck out to me is that. You're the main character in a lot of different ways.
One of them is just that God has you winning against really impossible odds. God has you winning at the end of the story. And I thought that was really inspiring. And I think there's a lot of people, especially Christians out there, who need to hear that. That God is not waiting for you to get out of the way so that He can shine, He can get all the glory, and then you just get to worship Him.
God has amazing things for you. You know what I mean? And I think for that we need to now understand the two things that I began with, memory and destiny. And I learned that from Bruce Waltke. He's an Old Testament scholar who's written several commentaries and introductory works on the Old Testament.
And he says that uh memory and destiny are what make up our identity. And he does this by studying the Old Testament characters. Memory and destiny.
So Go back to Job's statement. You know, after one after the other, the messengers come and give him the bad news. In fact, one doesn't even stop speaking before another one. Another one comes out. I had forgotten that detail until your message.
And I was like, man, this is like. This isn't like hours later. This isn't like a day or two later. This is in the same breath. It's like someone conversation.
The hits just keep coming. It's like someone scripted it. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's like someone.
It's like before he finishes, you need to get in there and get him off. That's crazy. We need time to process bad news, or good news for that matter. But bad news, we need some time to inhale. And exhale.
We need time to just sit. and process. We need time to just uh Figure out our next move before we even do anything. Right. Job does not even get that opportunity.
Yeah, I imagine them being like, Job, the fire's falling from heaven. He's like, Call the servants. It's like, no, the servants are dead. I just told you that. It's like, oh, okay.
Call the ones that are dealing with the camels. Make sure you get my kids out. Oh, no, wait. Kids are dead. Yeah.
And so What does Job say? Listen again to Job chapter 1, verse 21, and maybe one of y'all can read it. Sure. Job 1:21. Sure.
This is a powerful statement because it tells us both that memory and destiny are part of what makes up our identity. Yeah. Job 1:21 says, And he said, Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Now If you take that apart, because that's what we're going to do for the next couple of minutes. There are past statements Present statements and future statements. Past. Naked, I came from my mother's womb. That's past tense.
Something happened. Long, long ago and Job came Naked in the sense of having nothing with him. Right. Second statement is not past, it's not even present, it's future. Naked shall I return there.
This is something that's going to happen in the future. This is Um Guaranteed. Right. Naked shall I return there, and there is not his mother's womb. Naked shall I return there?
This is the other womb, the second womb, which is death, which is a grave. You would hope that would go without saying, but you never know these days. Yeah, you might clarify because in the Hebrews it makes sense, it's poetic, but in English, sometimes you go with who is it referring to? The subject or the object? You kind of lose the reference a little bit.
Right. Again, now we see a past, the Lord gave. And the Lord had has taken away again passed tense something that he accumulated over life. He became a wealthy man. He became a well known man.
He became a leader But God has taken it away. Of course, we know the taken away in those three messengers coming one after the other, announcing the bad news, and Job has lost it all. Mm-hmm. But now here comes A present. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
means recognizing what has been recognizing what will be, This is where I am. Right. I am going to say The Lord's name is blessed. He's not saying I'm blessed. But the name of the Lord shall be blessed.
And so, in that, oh, go ahead. I was just gonna say, he's saying that on the heels of unimaginable tragedy. And he's not disregarding that. He's not kind of like forcing himself to forget about that because he's saying that I have. God gave me everything and then God took everything away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Right. And so that's where identity comes in. I'm assuming that's sort of the point you're making: your identity is where you came from, but also like where you're going. Like, this is, these are parts of who you are.
So. 100%. Yeah. Although each of these attributes Are important. You know, we would those 11 identity markers that go around the circle, they're all very important.
They're not the end of yourself. Your Um Let's go back to that circle. Your culture is not the end in itself. Your relationships are not the end in itself. Your upbringing, not the end in itself.
These are factors. These are factors, but they don't have to be. Fatal. Like, you know, I was just raised in a horrible home situation. There's nothing I can do about it.
This is who I am now. I am broken. I'm distorted. I cannot ever do anything good. Nothing good is going to come out of this because of what happened back then.
Yeah. What needs to happen is proper perspective on your past and on your future. And that proper perspective only comes through a relationship With Christ. Yeah. So we start the relationship with Christ is our starting point for change, not necessarily for identity, but for changing our perspective on our identity.
I love the conversation, too, that it's not that these things don't matter at all. They do. They're important to consider. They're important to view in their appropriate context, but nothing is determinative. Like you grew up this way, therefore you will be this.
Well, I think there's no escape. You know, we come to that conclusion a lot on this show is that the... What the world tells you about yourself and all the ways that the world tries to structure life for you, they're not incorrect. They're just incomplete. They're going to give you an incomplete view of who you actually are.
And it's always destined, I think, to be incomplete because we're so ready to leave out Christ. The world is so eager to take Christ out of things that you're always going to get an incomplete picture. But coming back to discussions like these, you often find that once you put Christ back in, just like you said, Dr. Shaw, your perspective changes to the more complete and the more rounded out whole view. Not to change.
Perspective is detrimental to your identity, to your future, to your Um to your very existence. Miroslav Wolf. Uh theologian at Yale University. He said this. What is needed is proper perspective on your future.
I'm paraphrasing right here. When past memories are not properly handled, And again, this is me paraphrasing. I'll tell you when his student comes in. When past memories are not properly handled, or if they are allowed to be rewritten, Open quotes They become a pre-memory of what will happen. Close quote.
a memory before it's actually happened. Right. Poetic. I like that. That's Miroslav.
That's like some Kingdom Hearts stuff, right? Yeah, man. I like that. In other words, whether real or conjured. You will have painful memories of the future if you don't deal with.
Your memories in the past. We kind of talked about that when Nicole was on, like, how sometimes we can remember these things from our past that we haven't dealt with properly. We remember them falsely. Yeah. We remember them incorrectly.
And so we start projecting them on what's going to happen in the future: things that might happen, might not happen, or can't happen based on false memories. Details are exaggerated, or some facts are ignored. And then, what you sort of it says it great here in other, what's real or conjured. It kind of becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Like you will establish this as a memory for yourself, even if it wasn't genuinely one.
You're right.
So what is needed is true identity, true memory, to true destiny, and the only way you can have the true memory, true destiny is in your relationship with Christ. when you have that grounding in Christ. Then There is a possibility that you can have proper perspective front and back. You must receive Christ as your Savior and your King. And I believe that Job did because later on in Job 19, verse 25, he talks about, I know that my Redeemer lives.
Job never in this book says, Oh, I just got to meet my Redeemer. I wasn't saved before, I am saved now. No, he knows. He knows the gospel. He knows about the coming of the promised one of God.
He knows that God is going to send a Redeemer who will be like man and yet unlike man. He knows all these things. But now, In Job 19, in the midst of his suffering, as God is beginning to give him His vision, he says, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he shall stand at last on the earth. And after my skin is destroyed, this I know that in my flesh I shall see God. whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold And not another, how my heart yearns within me.
You cannot say that without Jesus being in your life. And so When you hear this memory destiny stuff, God gave, God has taken away, naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I'm gonna go there. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
These are not just words of an ordinary person. These are the words of a saved person. It sort of reminds me of our conversation on being in the Christ time, that once you're in Christ, You do start to see your past and your future very differently. Your perspective not only shifts, like, oh, I see things differently now, you can see things for what they are. Does that make sense?
You see how things are connected too. It's not just like that was my past and it happened. That's my future, it's going to happen. No, there's a connection between that, and that happens through a relationship with Christ, the one who is not in linear time like we are. Yeah, there's a realm where God is doing things and he's moving and he's like visibly active.
And I say visibly, not with like eyes, like you know, where I can physically see it, but eyes of faith. But still, there's a realm where he's doing those things. And we did a few episodes on it, and we'll link them in the show notes for you guys if you are just joining us for the first time today. Yeah, Christ time is a fascinating concept. Yes, it really is.
And it was something that we talked about for, I think, maybe five or six episodes. And so, like I said, we'll link them. But it sort of reminds me of that, where now that you're in Christ, you see things how they truly are. Yeah. So There's a verse I want to read for us.
It's Colossians chapter 3 and verse 3. It says, For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. That's a past tense. When Christ, who is our Life, appears, that's future transcends. Then you also will appear future tense with him in glory.
So there's a past tense, there's a future tense. Colossians Chapter three goes hand in hand with Job. And this section about naked, I came from my mother's home, naked, I should go there. This is very similar. And so having this understanding And the life of Christ in us, and the Holy Spirit with us, you can then have true identity.
Do you think, do you ever talk to people or counsel people? And they're They're under this impression, and I don't know if I've ever put this into words or not, so forgive me if this is not, but like. I want to follow Christ. I want to do it. I'm just worried that my life is going to somehow be less.
All the time. They may not say that, but there's like a, I'm worried that. It's going to diminish. I'm going to miss out on things. Yeah, I'm going to diminish my life in some way.
Yeah. Right. If I follow Christ. Yeah, that's a great point. I feel like maybe that sentiment is there, even if it's not verbally expressed a lot.
Yeah, that I may have a diminished life, or I may have an insignificant life, a failed life, a forgotten life if I let Jesus direct my life. Or even just a less fun life. Right, yeah.
Right. I would say to the contrary When you have your true identity In Christ. Then you are ready to take the stage for the greatest performance of all time. Wow. What if?
I know we talked about the main character energy. What if? God does want you to be the main character. What if God does want you to be the main character in your story? And I know that that's almost sounds like Uh, fingernails on chalkboard because it's like, wait, wait, wait, that's not true.
Jesus should be the main character. And as you said just a few minutes ago, Ryan, if Jesus is just a character, then who is a director? That's right. The main character has to do what the director says or what the author says. They're bound.
And we cannot be doing this like God directing God's stuff. Right. Yeah. Well, we can get God the Father to be the director and then God the Son to stand on the stage of life, even if you're life. No, it doesn't work like that.
Right. Start splitting the Trinity. Right. Because you could do that. God could run the entire show by himself.
He doesn't need us. But here we are. But what are we the audience? God created us to have an audience for himself. No, there's a relationship here.
There's give and take. But this identity, I mean, leaning into the acting theatrical terms, this identity is your proper motivation for your character. That's right. Your director gives you the right parameters in which to operate. And then you step into, like you said, Dart Shadow, the greatest role of your life.
And we have used, like on our worship team or just on this show before talking to people about how we worship God, we have. Have used this illustration of a loving father watching his kids, quote unquote, and I know worship people hate this. Quote unquote, put on a chauffeur. You know what I'm saying? That your Christian life is performative, not in a way that it's fake.
But it is a performance unto God. It's us saying, God, we've put this together. We love you so much. Just like we've done with our plays here. We've put this together because we love God.
That's right. We want to show Him what He deserves it. Exactly.
So I see our Christian life being the exact same way. That's right. God wants to. Almost in a sense, be out in the audience watching us perform for him. Or even help us.
He's the director who wants to help us get a standing ovation at the end of life. And the greatest standing ovation that you and I can get at the end of life is not just. People standing up, or the world standing up, or the movers and the shakers of this world standing up. But God Himself gives us The standing ovation when he says, Well done, good and faithful servant. Great point.
That to me is the greatest compliment you and I can get at the end of life. Amen. Amen. And they're crowns in glory and. We will receive those crowns just like Oscars in our hands.
And we will throw them down at the feet of Jesus. Of Jesus. Amen. What a beautiful picture. I love it.
Wow. It's one of those things, too, where it's like you see this vision of what's to come and. It's a beautiful cycle of glory being, and I don't mean glory as in like God's glory, but just praise. I guess maybe praise being given and being received. It's people.
Built and it's people and God constantly building and praising. And it's, I don't know, it's just something I think people get wrong a lot.
Well, that's that destiny piece that we were talking about. You know, we talked about memory and how you reframe your past and how you see things correctly, but that's also destiny, how you see your future. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Guys, I can't wait to continue this conversation on tomorrow's episode.
Make sure you join us same time, same station. We're going to be digging further into this topic. Thanks again to our sponsors for supporting today's episode. And if today was your first time listening to us, hey, we're glad you joined the conversation. We love you.
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