Who Are You
09/04/12 12:12 Filed in: David Ellis
It’s the BIG question… One of the biggest.
If you miss this answer, then the rest of the test doesn’t matter.
You might think you know, and you probably know more than you think.
But did you know the answer you believe steers everything else you do?
Who Are You?
That question in the classic song by The Who is more profound than most of us realize.
Annie Dillard says in her book Teaching a Stone to Talk,
“On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it?”
I would add to that, do we have the foggiest idea Who exactly we have living inside of us? And who that actually makes us to be?
Of all the ideas and issues that swirl around us, trying to grab our attention, trying to pull us into action, trying to be the focus of our day, nothing is more central nor more critical than our Identity- who we believe ourselves to be.
Sure, we have all the external categories that the world we live in is in a constant state of frenetic activity trying to convince us to utilize. You’re rich, you’re poor. You’re attractive or you need our product to get that way. You’re successful, you’re a failure. The list goes on and on and regardless of what category we put ourselves in, the world ultimately tells you that it’s about what’s on the outside or what we accomplish that really counts.
Unfortunately, despite what, as Christians, we say we believe, most of us are living, as Annie Dillard says, without the foggiest idea of what Power we really are praying to. And if we’ve lost that, then we’ve also lost what Person we really have living in us.
We have lost our Identity.
We’ve lost our Identity not only as a whole Christian community, but as individuals, specifically. It’s more than “we” have lost it; we- the collective group that we so easily can hide ourselves into, and therefore let the impact of the Truth dissipate, much like when we say “God so loved the world”, but so conveniently never let the Truth that it also means “me” specifically actually impact us. It is that “you” have lost it. And “I” have lost it.
I do not know who I am. Really. Deep Down. Roots kind of deep. The kind of deep that changes my heart, my mind and my daily actions. Sure I can say anything I want. I can say I believe God is this or that. But as Annie Dillard so accurately surmises, most of us aren’t really aware of what’s really afoot. What’s really going on. Not to the level that we find in the heroes of old. The brave men and women buried in the catacombs who knew Who they prayed to, Who they were following, and Who that made them.
I, for one, want to live with that kind of awareness. I want to live with that kind of consciousness- sufficiently aware of conditions- what is really going on, and Who is really leading me, Who I actually have living inside of me and Who that makes me to be.
Don’t you?
Knowing your True Identity will change your world. It will change how you get up in the morning. It will change what you spend your time doing. It will change where you spend your money, spend your creativity, spend your energy. It will change how you go to bed. And it will change all the days between now and when you run full speed into Home.
As author Fredrick Buechner said,
“Our world, even with all its confusion and wildness, is a world where the battle goes ultimately to the good, who live happily ever after, and where in the long run everybody, good and evil alike, becomes known by his true name.”
Now is the time to discover and recover Who we really follow and Who we really are. Each day without Knowing is a tragic day lost.
So Who Are You? Are you ready to go on the journey to find out?
Check out Heart Revolution:: EXPLORATION
Living the Revolution!
David Ellis
That question in the classic song by The Who is more profound than most of us realize.
Annie Dillard says in her book Teaching a Stone to Talk,
“On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it?”
I would add to that, do we have the foggiest idea Who exactly we have living inside of us? And who that actually makes us to be?
Of all the ideas and issues that swirl around us, trying to grab our attention, trying to pull us into action, trying to be the focus of our day, nothing is more central nor more critical than our Identity- who we believe ourselves to be.
Sure, we have all the external categories that the world we live in is in a constant state of frenetic activity trying to convince us to utilize. You’re rich, you’re poor. You’re attractive or you need our product to get that way. You’re successful, you’re a failure. The list goes on and on and regardless of what category we put ourselves in, the world ultimately tells you that it’s about what’s on the outside or what we accomplish that really counts.
Unfortunately, despite what, as Christians, we say we believe, most of us are living, as Annie Dillard says, without the foggiest idea of what Power we really are praying to. And if we’ve lost that, then we’ve also lost what Person we really have living in us.
We have lost our Identity.
We’ve lost our Identity not only as a whole Christian community, but as individuals, specifically. It’s more than “we” have lost it; we- the collective group that we so easily can hide ourselves into, and therefore let the impact of the Truth dissipate, much like when we say “God so loved the world”, but so conveniently never let the Truth that it also means “me” specifically actually impact us. It is that “you” have lost it. And “I” have lost it.
I do not know who I am. Really. Deep Down. Roots kind of deep. The kind of deep that changes my heart, my mind and my daily actions. Sure I can say anything I want. I can say I believe God is this or that. But as Annie Dillard so accurately surmises, most of us aren’t really aware of what’s really afoot. What’s really going on. Not to the level that we find in the heroes of old. The brave men and women buried in the catacombs who knew Who they prayed to, Who they were following, and Who that made them.
I, for one, want to live with that kind of awareness. I want to live with that kind of consciousness- sufficiently aware of conditions- what is really going on, and Who is really leading me, Who I actually have living inside of me and Who that makes me to be.
Don’t you?
Knowing your True Identity will change your world. It will change how you get up in the morning. It will change what you spend your time doing. It will change where you spend your money, spend your creativity, spend your energy. It will change how you go to bed. And it will change all the days between now and when you run full speed into Home.
As author Fredrick Buechner said,
“Our world, even with all its confusion and wildness, is a world where the battle goes ultimately to the good, who live happily ever after, and where in the long run everybody, good and evil alike, becomes known by his true name.”
Now is the time to discover and recover Who we really follow and Who we really are. Each day without Knowing is a tragic day lost.
So Who Are You? Are you ready to go on the journey to find out?
Check out Heart Revolution:: EXPLORATION
Living the Revolution!
David Ellis