Who are you?
If I asked you that question, what would your answer be? Would it be, I’m (fill in your name here) or I’m a recent graduate; I’m a stay at home mom; I’m a student; I’m a banker; I’m an addict; I’m a thief; I’m poor; I’m rich. The responses would be endless.
But if you were to sit quietly and peel away the outer layers of the titles either you’ve given yourself or the world has pinned on you, what would the answer be?
Sometimes we get stuck on labels – either the ones we’ve given ourselves or the ones that have been put on us by others. Growing up, you were the smart one or the funny one. Maybe you were the athlete or the artist. You were either “loved” for what you did or didn’t do, or you were told that you were loved unconditionally no matter what.
Labels can be stuck like superglue on our sense of who we are. Sometimes, if the labels are good ones, you live up to them and become a pretty great person. Things seem to come easy to you because you don’t sense the same barriers that block other people’s journey.
But, for some, the labels can be hurtful and hard and stuck on them so tightly that they never really come off. It can feel like the world is a hard, rotten place and everything is an uphill battle.
I wonder if we were able to somehow scrub away the label stuck on us by others or past experiences, would we be able to either recreate who we are or discover who we can be if all the preconceived ideas about us disappeared? Who would we really and truly be?
Before we can understand who we are and all that we are capable of, we have to strip away the labels. And once those are gone, we can’t waste time looking around at others comparing our lives or our sense of who we are to some imagined version of perfection. I’ll never be a Kardashian (don’t want to be, by the way) or Maya Angelo (though I’d loved to have known her).
Comparing ourselves with others keeps us stuck. We’ll never discover who we are or what we can do. In fact, the Bible tells a great story of an interaction between Jesus and Peter, one of his best friends. They were talking about who people were and what they would be able to accomplish. Peter asked about one of Jesus’ other friends and Jesus told Peter, “don’t worry about the other guy, I’m talking about you.” In essence, Jesus told him, don’t waste your time and energy trying to make sure you measure up to the guy next to you.
Focus on YOU. Focus on the gifts and strengths that God has given YOU. The person next to you will figure out their own sense of self and who they are. The world would be incredibly boring if we were all the same. The person I am, combined with the person you are, is what can make this world better.
Let me ask again, who are you? My answer to that is I’m Deanna. I’m loved by the God who created the universe. I’m far from perfect, but He made me exactly as I am for reasons only He knows. Because I love Him and He loves me, I know that He is using me to love others and help bring a little more joy and peace to those I come in contact with every minute of every day and I will do my best never to waste a moment of my time here on earth by comparing myself to anyone.
So what’s your answer?
You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once, but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own. – Michelle Obama
