How many times do we find ourselves wondering about who we are, or who we have become. When we are children, we discover our identity based on what is revealed to us by our parents. Throughout our lives we find our identity through our school, our friends and our activities. As adults we find our identities in our careers, our spouses, our children, and our associations. Are these identifiers a true indicator of who we really are at our core? That is the question, isn't it? Some of us go through life becoming what we are expected to become and wake up one morning wondering who we really are. If we were to strip away all of our titles what are we left with? Hopefully we would be able to answer that question with a confident "Me."
How many of us feel like we need time alone to find ourselves? It can be difficult to strip away all the titles and expectations when we are in the midst of our every day life. So instead of escaping, why not make a time for some quiet reflection. Escape the madness of the day and find out who you really are. Find out what you really like and dislike, find out what your dreams are and maybe even resurrect some of the dreams that you have allowed to die in the past, find out what motivates you and what hinders you, and find out what you are passionate about (it may even surprise you). Some of you who are reading this are thinking "How do I figure all of that out?". I would recommend treating it as if you were meeting yourself for the first time. Ask yourself questions that will lead you to the answers you seek. If you like to journal, write down what you discover about yourself so you can be reminded of it in the future.
Another way to find out who you are, is to ask God to reveal who he created you to be. David in the Bible shares with us just how well God knows us in Psalm 139:1-19,23-24. "O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." God knows everything about who we are at our core, and we can be assured that if we ask Him to reveal it to us, He will.
So the next time you find yourself wondering who you are, take time to be reminded of not only who you are but who you were created to be!
How many of us feel like we need time alone to find ourselves? It can be difficult to strip away all the titles and expectations when we are in the midst of our every day life. So instead of escaping, why not make a time for some quiet reflection. Escape the madness of the day and find out who you really are. Find out what you really like and dislike, find out what your dreams are and maybe even resurrect some of the dreams that you have allowed to die in the past, find out what motivates you and what hinders you, and find out what you are passionate about (it may even surprise you). Some of you who are reading this are thinking "How do I figure all of that out?". I would recommend treating it as if you were meeting yourself for the first time. Ask yourself questions that will lead you to the answers you seek. If you like to journal, write down what you discover about yourself so you can be reminded of it in the future.
Another way to find out who you are, is to ask God to reveal who he created you to be. David in the Bible shares with us just how well God knows us in Psalm 139:1-19,23-24. "O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." God knows everything about who we are at our core, and we can be assured that if we ask Him to reveal it to us, He will.
So the next time you find yourself wondering who you are, take time to be reminded of not only who you are but who you were created to be!