Who Are You?

Who are you?  We answer this question is many different ways.  We explain where we come from, who are our people.  What we do is somewhere in there, along with hobbies, friends, and what makes us happy.  All of these things contribute, of course.  They are all a part of our stories.  But are they who we are?  Do we argue genetics versus environment?  Are we our family tree?  How much choice do we actually have about who we are?  Do road trips actually help us in finding out who we are?  I can tell you all about my story, who I’ve been, what I’ve done, where I’ve been.  But maybe, I’ve been looking at all this from the wrong perspective.

When we see art, most of us admire the art itself.  But when an expert looks, they see much more than the art, construction or design.  They study the artist, architect, and designer.  They discuss who the artist is or was, what their goals were, what they were thinking and feeling.  What is the purpose of the creation?  What was the creation intended to do?  So, maybe instead of searching for ourselves in an answer of ‘who am I’, we should look and study our Creator.  To start, check out Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you.  Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you…”  Not bad for a start, huh?  Then, there’s Ephesians 2:10 “God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.”  How about 1 Peter 2: 9-10 “But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.”?

Folks, the things written about us in Scriptures are almost unending.  Check them out for yourselves!  What was our Artist, our Architect, our Designer thinking?  What is His goal, the purpose of it all?  My take is simple, foundational, and infinitely complicated…  Love.  We argue over everything.  Politics.  Sports.  Everything from how to worship to how to cook an egg.  And what does He want us to do?  Love.  Love the people who are different from me.  Love the people who are persecuted.  Love the people who need what I have.  What did Christ do, nailed by His hands and feet to wood and hoisted in shame?  He looked at His killers and He loved.  What are we to do when faced with disagreeing thoughts, when ridiculed and persecuted?  Love.  Listen to this video of Chris Tomlin singing Good, Good Father.  Read and print out the lyrics.  Study.  Learn.  Love. 

So, who am I?  Who are you?  You are loved by your Creator.  It’s who you are.