Who are you?

"Who are you?" Haven't you ever heard this question? Perhaps in these forms: "Who is she? or Who am I? Yes either someone else has asked this question or you have done it to yourself.

All this takes us to defining our identity, which is quite a very complex thing. Lots of people or even all people struggle with determining who they really are. In most cases, the context in which we live plays a big role in describing who we may be. There are often some standard things established by culture that we tend to use in defining who we are.

At the end of this whole process, you will find out that celebrities, stars, political leaders, people we look up to somehow are the ones we use as references to defining ourselves. Here is a question: "Have you not noticed that you often want to live like someone else, but never like yourself?"

Don't you feel that it seems to be so hard to really live like yourself because you don't know who you really are. Let me take you to a scripture we find in John 1: 19-28. This tells us about the ministry of John the Baptist. For a while, he was preaching and baptizing, but people, especially those in leadership, wanted to know who he really was. When they asked him the question: "who are you?"

John did not want to identify with the Messiah or prophets, but he said that he was just the voice of the one who should come to help prepare the way of the Lord. Notice here that in Israel titles such as Messiah and prophet were like what we would call now celebrities or stars we watch on TV or have in our communities. He defined who he was based on his calling and mission. He did not define who he was from the ordinary cultural context. No he told them who he was on the basis of who he knew he was called to be.

Friend, do not kill yourself trying to be who you will never become. You are already who you are, and that does not depend on how the world around you may think about you. The best of you can be is in God. When you seek God's face about your life, then you will discover who you really are. Do not let anything or anyone try to tell you who you should be. Your identity is hidden in yourself, which God, your Maker, can help you find!

Be always blessed and of good courage!