One of the important questions that everyone must answer is, “Who am I?” Who am I in relationship to my ‘self’, my family, my world, and in relationship with the LORD. The answers to these questions direct the rest of life. If I am just the result of an accidental lightening strike on a pond of ooze, then my life will take an a very different character than if I believe I am created in God’s image and likeness and placed here with a purpose of glorifying Him.
If we believe parents are interchangeable units of adult protoplasm, then their actual biological connection to their offspring is not very important. Babies could be housed in warehouses with computers programmed to hold, talk to, feed, diaper, bathe, and sing a lullaby. Shifts of adult substitutes could be brought in to supplement the computers, giving a random human face to the occasional cuddle.
Unfortunately, this sounds like too many families today, raising their children on TV, internet, games, day care and a rotation of adult inhabitants of the primary home. It certainly answers the question about who we are with a resounding, “Not much!”
In working to focus His disciples on what is important Jesus asks the question about His identity. He wants to know what the disciples are hearing and thinking. He wants to know their conclusions about Him, and consequently their conclusions about themselves as His disciples.
Our identity is always wrapped up in our understanding of our connections. I am George & Teen’s son, Bev’s husband, and Karissa and Ben’s dad. I am also ‘Pop Pop’ to some grand children. I have brothers and a sister, nephews and nieces, in laws and out laws.
But I am also a Jesus-follower, forgiven and a work in progress. To put it in theological terms, I am already and not yet. I am also a member of His body, an integrated network of living, breathing individuals charged with living a life of holiness in a fallen world, and thus showing this fallen world the possibility of a different way of living.
I am not part of a political movement or quick-fix group. I am about the fundamental transformation of people from death to life, sinner to saint, empty shell to holy vessel.
Who are you?
The Arnold Journey 