I find it hilarious when I visit websites like myspace or facebook where these social utility websites asks me to fully describe myself in small section entitled “About Me”. The expectation is that you could answer what (in my opinion) is one of the most difficult questions a person can ask himself/herself…
Who am I?
How do I answer this question? This is an extremely difficult question to wrap my mind around. How do I wrap up my entire existence in a few words? How do I put into words the complexity of an individual human life?
When I look at my life from a distance, I see that I am many things (as one person in my life says, “I wear many hats”). I am a human being. I am a husband to my wife. I am a son to my parents. I am a parent to my two dogs. I am a brother to my sister. I am a friend to those that I call my friends. I am a youth minister for an amazing group of students at the Shannon Oaks Church. I am a sports fan. I am a New York Yankees fan. I am an athlete. I am a musician. I am a leader. I am a follower. I am one who teaches others. I am one who learns from others. And this list could go on and on.
But there has to be something more…something bigger.
As I get older I realize that “adults” often define themselves by their job, career, or how much money they make. If that is true, then I am a youth minister for the Shannon Oaks Church. There has to be more. That cannot be who I truly am.
That cannot be how I define myself because it can be taken away. If it is taken away, then my identity and who I am gets taken away. The same can be said about all those other areas of my life and all the different hats I wear. I love my wife more than life itself. However, if my identity comes through being her husband, that could be taken away, leaving me not knowing who I truly am.
When you put my life under the strongest microscope, at the very center of my life, at the very core of who I am, how I define myself is that I am a son of the most high God and saved by Jesus Christ. I a vessel of the Holy Spirit living on this earth with a mission to know God and to make him known. That identity can never be taken away from me.
That is who I am.
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I ask you today to examine your life. Take a minute and seriously ask yourself the question “Who am I?” Where do you find your identity? Can that identity be taken away?
Great question! I didn’t even try to answer the question about who I am in my ‘about’ section on my blog. It is too hard.
wow thats a challenge for ya but hat was a great blog
hey sorry for texting you when you had to pay extra ill call. ha ha
love ya bro!
wow..well brian that is going to be a big challenge…right now..i am not sure myself…so it may be days before i get back to you this one..
OOOOOOOOHHHH…. This one is exciting! We could run around chasing our tails on a question like that for a very long time! (or fill up your comment box!)
Remember Sunday, we were told about being a temple, and at the core of us is the manifest presence of God? Was that not the most COOLEST description of identity EVER!
At the core of me, sits God/Jesus/Holy Spirit. On the outside of me is a million tiny peices of fabric that can change color, wax and wane, and reflect my core. And that is just a few lines!
Thanks B!
uhh…really all i can think of right now is wow!!!!
you have no idea how that has made me think. just so happens shane and shane comes on right when i start reading that!! that was a great blog and something that has and will make me think for a good while..thanks for sharing!!
[...] goes hand-in-hand with identity. Like my post earlier this week (WHO AM I?), this essentially gets to the very core of who you are. When everything gets pealed away – your [...]