What Is Your Identity Rooted In?

“It’s Gotta Be More Than This”

Tom Brady is considered the best NFL quarterback, if not the best football player of all time. With seven Super Bowl victories, and holding multiple records, it would be natural to assume he is one of the most satisfied people alive. He has immersed his life in football and achieved everything an athlete could ever hope for.

Apparently, that is not the case.

In 2005 having already won three Super Bowl rings he shared his real thoughts on 60 Minutes.

Brady said, “There are times where I’m not the person that I want to be. Why do I have three Super Bowl rings, and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, “Hey man, this is what is.” I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think: God, it’s gotta be more than this. I mean this can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be. I mean I’ve done it. I’m 27. And what else is there for me?”

“What’s the answer?” asked the interviewer.

“I wish I knew. I wish I knew…”

How sad! How can Tom Brady be one of the most successful people on the planet and not be content? There’s got to be more! Is finding your identity, in wealth, success, or popularity not rewarding? Has this all been a lie? If the most famous and successful people in the world are not content, then how can we be? It is correct to believe that there is something much more and greater out there for us.

1. Identity Cannot Be Found in Self

Our culture is absolutely obsessed with self and is going through an identity crisis. 

Who am I?  We long to love ourselves, know ourselves, and idolize ourselves. 

Here are some quotes supporting this ideology from individuals whom the world would define as successful and influential:

”Your self-worth is determined by you. You do not have to depend on someone telling you who you are.” —Beyonce [i]

”The better you know yourself, the better your relationship with the rest of the world.” —Toni Collette [ii]

”Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” —Aristotle [iii]

The lost will always turn to someone or something to worship other than God. The longing to know who you are and submit to all desires only feeds the flesh. Self is a broken, depressing, and false god. Finding yourself cannot be found in you.

Tim Keller says, “If anything becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness, meaning of life, and identity then it is an idol.” [iv]

“Self is a broken, depressing, and false god. Finding yourself cannot be found in you.”

This is so true. God is a jealous God and does not tolerate competition. Too easily do things slither in to suffocate our affections for our Creator. We desire comfort and convenience to serve us hand and foot. Yet, this is the opposite of the Gospel. You cannot serve both you and God. 

2. The World Does Not Have Anything To Offer

Individuals try to find an identity in various things. Maybe it is their family, friends, work, or hobbies. These things are not necessarily bad but they are meant to rest underneath our affection for God. I know I can struggle with placing my affections towards my health and my possessions. It isn’t wrong to have an appreciation for these things but I was longing for them to give me security. Not surprisingly, I could never find satisfaction in these things.

Your identity and satisfaction cannot be wrapped up in the world. It is impossible to find lasting fulfillment in a broken vessel. Why else do people constantly seek to obtain more and more for the sake of contentment? Because the world was never meant to satisfy.

The truth is that contentment is found in Christ. Like John Piper famously wrote, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” [v]

“It is impossible to find lasting fulfillment in a broken vessel…the world was never meant to satisfy.”

Matthew 16:26 says, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Is the world beautiful? Are good pleasures in this life given by God?  Yes and yes! God burst with color, mountains, emotions, laughter, and a kaleidoscope of beauty in a matter of words. Enjoy the life you have been given! Soak up the landscapes, delight in melodies, savor flavors. May you find joy in this world but may this world not be your source of joy. Pleasures in this world are only a drop of flavor compared to the ocean of delight God provides. 

Who better to find satisfaction in than the one who created the world along with its good pleasures?

3. Lose Yourself In Eternity

There are two options for how we can invest our lives. You can choose the route that will never fulfill and is temporary or the life satisfied in God and will last forever.

Your identity doesn’t have to be in yourself. You were not created to satisfy your desires. 

The world has nothing to offer that Christ cannot.

Sinclair B. Ferguson says, “Christians have a new identity. We are no longer ‘in Adam’ but ‘in Christ’; no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit.” [vi]

So what does this mean for us? As a believer, it means that where we place our identity will be eternal. In a hundred years when you are gone from this earth, your identity will still be firmly placed in Christ. In a thousand years, your satisfaction in God will be overflowing more than you could ever fathom. Is there any better investment than in the holy, unshakable kingdom of God?

“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Ps. 73:26)

“How great are his signs, and how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.” (Dn. 4:3)

“In a hundred years when you are gone from this earth, your identity Will still be firmly placed in Christ. In a thousand years, your satisfaction in God will be overflowing more than you could ever fathom.”

There Is So Much More 

Remember when Tom Brady said “There’s gotta be more than this.”? Well, the answer is, yes, there is so much more than what we ourselves or this world could ever offer.

C. S. Lewis says, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” [vii]

Not in football, or friends, or bucket list experiences. Our hearts were created for an eternal kingdom. When we fill the ache and try to scour the earth for something more, we won’t find it here. Instead, the One we needed to find our identity in came down to us. Jesus provided the way for salvation and is the source of contentment.

What good news!

Find your identity in Christ, rest in the Gospel, walk with him, and wait with eager expectation for the forever Kingdom!

[i] Beyonce Knowles. (n.d.). AZQuotes.com. Retrieved April 20, 2026, from AZQuotes.com Web site: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/542057

[ii] Toni Collette. (n.d.). AZQuotes.com. Retrieved April 20, 2026, from AZQuotes.com Web site: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/629126

[iii] Aristotle. (n.d.). AZQuotes.com. Retrieved April 20, 2026, from AZQuotes.com Web site: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/344323

[iv] Timothy Keller. (n.d.). AZQuotes.com. Retrieved April 20, 2026, from AZQuotes.com Web site: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1411982

[v] John Piper. (n.d.). AZQuotes.com. Retrieved April 20, 2026, from AZQuotes.com Web site: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/232554

[vi] Sinclair B. Ferguson. (n.d.). AZQuotes.com. Retrieved April 20, 2026, from AZQuotes.com Web site: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1401163

[vii] C. S. Lewis. (n.d.). AZQuotes.com. Retrieved April 20, 2026, from AZQuotes.com Web site: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/519538