Identity, the Change Saboteur

After relocating to Oregon this spring, I encountered at phrase that I was not familiar with. Ok. I actually encountered many phrases and ideas that were previously unknown to me… Many involved ice-cream flavors that incorporated savory elements like bone marrow or bacon. Thank you Salt -n- Straw. However, my favorite new phrase is associated with Oregon’s high speed transportation lanes (also known as a freeway).

Did you know that you can actually tell that you are from Oregon if you call the freeway or highway an “interstate”? Or if you pronounce the letter I in the description of said freeway/interstate/highway.

I have found that I have the gift of interpretation to discern where people are from by their freeway/interstate/highway terminology.

You are from the California’s Bay Area, if, instead of pronouncing the letter I before the freeway/interstate/highway number, you replace the letter I with “nothing”. As in, “we took 5 towards downtown”, or “you need to take 605 west to 405 north”.

Now this is significantly different from Southern California where we might say “brah like take the 5 to the like 56, to the like 15”.

Ok, well maybe that was only for a bad period of time in the 80’s, but we do replace the I, before the number, with the word “THE”. As in, “take THE 5 to THE 805”.

What my new neighborhood might lack in ethnic diversity, it makes up for it in freeway/interstate/highway terminology diversity. These cultural distinctions are important and are what make West Linn so rich in terminology diversity.

Now this hit home a couple of weeks ago when we were getting off the freeway/interstate/highway and my youngest son asked a question about THE 5, using the Oregonian pronunciation, inserting the letter I before the number. I immediately slammed on the brakes and whipped my head around in my seat, like something out of the Exorcist and reprimanded him. “We don’t say I-5 in our family! The I is silent!! Actually… from now on, the letter I is outlawed in our family!!! We are from San Diego!!!!”

At this point my older son, whose name starts with an I, asked me how we were going to spell his name. Still being upset about this violation of family culture, I snapped back and said, “From now on you will use an exclamation point for the first letter of your name!!!!!” Needless to say this did not go over very well with my wife or the social security administration, who, wouldn’t you know it, does not recognize symbols as acceptable characters in names (A fact which ! would appreciate you keeping to yourself.).

The question ! had to ask myself was, why was ! so concerned with keeping this regional mark of identification. Why was it so important to me to be from California? What did this attitude say towards my feelings about Oregon or Oregonians? Was ! considering myself superior because of my refined interstate transportation corridor terminology?

Adapting or moving from one cultural norm to another can be incredibly difficult, however there are a couple of easy things we can do to make that process significantly harder. One of which is a desire to retain our identity at the cost of the group or organization.

The Apostle Paul challenged the church in Ephesus to let go of their cultural identity in order to take on a new identity in Jesus. If you look at the first chapter of Ephesians, it it littered with identifying terms. In fact, there are 13 terms identifying characteristics that we now have because we are “in Christ” and 5 more characteristics that we are able to enjoy as followers of Jesus.

A consistent issue that Paul addressed with the early church was that their cultural identity of being Jewish first and a follower of Jesus second was actually creating a entry barrier to Gentiles becoming a followers of Jesus. You will recall as you read the book of Acts and throughout many of Paul’s letters that he was consistently breaking down any barriers between someone and Jesus. Many a Gentile man celebrated the fact that Paul made sure they did not have to get circumcised before being accepted into the faith.

The issues that the early church fathers were going through is a very human struggle. “What if we lose our cultural identity?” “We want to be both Jewish and followers of Jesus!!!!!!!” As we read the scriptures 2000 years later, we can easily find ourselves looking down on these struggles. However, if we really think about it, this is a common fear associated with change, and it doesn’t just happen around religious or cultural identity. In our sophistication of the 21st Century we wonder why they couldn’t see that they could be both followers of Jesus and celebrate their unique cultural heritage. In the same way ! can enjoy living in Oregon and at the same time, celebrate my California roots.

When change is introduced into your life or into an organization, your ability to adapt and navigate the change will, in part, greatly depend on your ability to separate your fear of loss from reality. ! was afraid that my 9yo was going to forget where he came from, however if I step back and think about it, this fear has no basis in reality. Because you can’t lose where you came from, why would ! need to be so active in defending something that can’t be lost.

When we feel defensive or threatened or intimidated, it can usually be traced back to a root of fear. Fear of loss; fear of the unknown; fear of not being in control. Yet, if you are a follower of Jesus, you know that Jesus replaced the spirit of fear that we once had, with the Holy Spirit. This means that we no longer have to live lives motivated or held by fear.

The next time you feel resistant to change ask yourself a couple of questions:

~ Am ! defensive about this change because ! feel that something is being taken away from me?

~ Do ! feel threatened by this change because it is something that ! haven’t done or thought of before?

~ Am ! intimidated by this change because it is beyond what ! can control?

If you are anything like me, my guess is that you will find you are living out of a position of fear and not one of freedom in Christ. A quick identification of this fact can help you evaluate the potential change, limiting your personal bias thereby making THE best decision.