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You can tell a lot about what a person and a culture values by the first questions they ask upon meeting someone new. In America, when you meet someone for the first time, one of the first questions you are always asked is what you do for a living. And if we are honest, we all start to form judgements or ideas about the person based on their profession. It is rare that I meet someone in America and do not know what they do for a living after the first few minutes of conversation. I didn't realize that this wasn't the case everywhere until I moved to Germany.
In my experience, you can know someone for years in Germany and not know exactly what it is they do for work. It's not a secret, but it just doesn't always come up. But it is not that they don't ask questions about new people when they meet. They just ask different questions. I have found that in Germany, the most common question people ask each other when they first meet is what their hobbies are. German culture loves hobbies, and people truly invest time, money, and effort into their various hobbies. They take them much more seriously than Americans do. I have witnessed many Americans, including myself at first, struggling to even answer the question, since we tend to work so much that many American adults don't even have real hobbies. But that's not so here in Germany! For example, one in five Germans are official members of a sports club! And many other clubs exist for people to enjoy their hobbies with others.
My sweet husband explained it like this: "Americans live to work, but Germans work to live. All y'all do is work, so you don't have hobbies. Germans work enough so they can really enjoy their hobbies." (Yes I've taught him to say y'all, by the way.) So, I'll let you decide which one is better: to ask about your job or your hobby. Neither is necessarily bad, but at the end of the day, when too much emphasis is placed on either one of these things, they become an idol. I have seen this. Many Americans idolize their jobs. They completely define themselves by their jobs. Germans might not do this as much, but they are still idolizing something other than God: they idolize their free time and how they spend it. It really is two sides of the same coin. In either scenario, when taken too far, we place our identity in someone besides God, which leads to idolatry.
I never thought I was one to fall into this trap much. I certainly didn't think my job was an idol in my life – I was in ministry after all! I knew my identity was in Christ, but when I moved to Germany, I had to leave my job in full-time ministry. I was still doing ministry, and lots of it, but it didn't come with a full-time salary and title anymore! It wasn't until my job title was gone that I realized I had put a little too much of my identity in it. I knew that Christ defined me, and I would have told you that until I was blue in the face. But when that idol was poked, it all became clear. What I knew in my head wasn't 100% true in my heart.
I was so encouraged by this passage as I spoke to the Lord about this:
"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:1-4)
Christ defines me. Christ defines you. He is my life. We are who He says we are! We are His. All these other things that we tie our identity to, our jobs, our family, our hobbies ,and more, they are all good things, but they are completely secondary to our identity in Christ.
This brings great stability of hope. What happens when you lose your job? Or a family member passes away? Or a marriage falls apart? Or you lose your ability to enjoy the same hobbies you once did? If your identity is in them, you will find yourself lost and hopeless. But when your identity is fully defined by the Lord, whatever may come, you can stand confident on the solid Rock, who is Jesus Christ the Lord! The solid Rock is unchanging. All these other things change, but He doesn't. That means, hallelujah, our identity, who we truly are and are created to be, doesn't change either.
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