Turning the Question Around

A lot of people have observed that the question "Who am I?" is one of the most important questions we must ask during our lives.  There are times in our lives when this question is energizing and exciting.  These are times of discovery, when we are uncovering our identity and becoming more clear about who we are and why we're here.  We may find ourselves saying, "Yes!!"  There are other times in our lives when this question can be more haunting.  These can be times of anguish and trembling, as we wonder whether our lives are off course, whether we are going down a wrong path, or whether we have wasted a lot of our time.

Margaret Marcuson, in her outstanding book, Leaders Who Last: Sustaining Yourself and Your

Ministry (click here) offers an interesting way to pursue this question.  She suggests taking Jesus' question to the disciples about himself - "Who do you say that I am?" (Mark 8:29) - and turning it around.  Marcuson encourages us to ask Jesus the same question about ourselves: "Jesus, who do you say that I am?"

Our own truest self is who we are in God.  We can, therefore, turn to God and ask God to reveal our own true nature to us.  God, who accepts us completely as we are right now and who calls us to be more than we are right now, can lead us to know ourselves more deeply.

We can ask God (or, if you are more comfortable addressing this question to
Jesus or to the Holy Spirit or to Life, then do that), "Who do you say that I am?"  And then we can let God answer, revealing to us new dimensions of our deepest, truest identity.  The answers that come will resonate deeply within us, and there will be a feeling of "rightness" about them.  And then we will begin to feel more solid and more secure in knowing who we are.