Who are you?

Who are you? Do you know?

Anyone who's been reading this blog for long knows that identity is one of the key themes. "In the mist of the becoming..." is an incredibly descriptive title, for I write here about becoming my self - the me that I was created to be.

I drew the picture, above, during the sermon (and the remainder of the service) this morning at church. The sermon was titled "Seeking My Identity in 2007".

Do I base my identity on:

• Who others think I am?
• What I see in the mirror?
• the family I came from?

Who am I?

• I need to remember that God is the starting point.

God says, "The place you start is by looking at me."

He says, "You belong to me; you are mine."

Yes, who am I going to be this year?

How am I going to live my true identity?

When people see me, do they know whose child I am?

What changes do I need to make to be the person I was made to be?

• Who am I and who do I plan to be?

Sermon Notes, January 7, 2007

This year, 2007, is already a good year for me. I expect it to continue, and I believe it will be a year of good things, good changes, newness and life.

It is important, this knowing oneself. We need to know ourselves if we are ever going to be able to properly fulfill our God-given destinies.

Destiny can be a scary word, I know.

destiny
noun

1. an event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future
2. the ultimate agency that predetermines the course of events (often personified as a woman); "we are helpless in the face of Destiny"
3. your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you); "whatever my fortune may be"; "deserved a better fate"; "has a happy lot"; "the luck of the Irish"; "a victim of circumstances"; "success that was her portion" [syn: fortune]

WordNet® 2.1, © 2005 Princeton University

But what does that really mean? What is our destiny, in the context of Christianity, with free will and everything else we talk about all the time?

We do all have a purpose. We were created in the Supreme burst of creativity. God wants us to know him, to know each other, and to know ourselves.

The beginning of a new year is a good time for us to take stock of ourselves, of our lives, to learn more about who we are and who we were created to be.

So, the picture I drew is of a girl looking at herself in a mirror. She is trying to learn who she is, to see her self. 2006 on the left, in the past, and 2007 on the right, ahead. The lyrics are from Switchfoot's song, This is Your Life:

Yesterday is a wrinkle on your forehead
Yesterday is a promise that you’ve broken
Don’t close your eyes, don’t close your eyes
This is your life and today is all you’ve got now
Yeah, and today is all you’ll ever have
Don’t close your eyes
Don’t close your eyes

This is your life, are you who you want to be
This is your life, are you who you want to be
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

Yesterday is a kid in the corner
Yesterday is dead and over

This is your life, are you who you want to be
This is your life, are you who you want to be
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

Don’t close your eyes
Don’t close your eyes
Don’t close your eyes
Don’t close your eyes

This is your life are you who you want to be
This is your life are you who you want to be

This is your life, are you who you want to be
This is your life, are you who you want to be
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed it would be
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

And you had everything to lose

So is your life what you want it to be? Are you who you want to be?

More importantly...

Is your life what God wants it to be? Are you who he wants you to be?