Who are We?

A few days ago, I was thinking about how people define themselves.  Oftentimes, it seems like we let our jobs and what we do define us.  Other times we think our failures and weaknesses say who we are.  Do we find our identities in our job titles or in God?  Do we allow what we do (or don’t do) to tell us who we are or do we ask God to reveal these truths to us?  

Apart from God, we cannot really know who we are.  He reveals the truth to us and the truth sets us free.  We cannot know ourselves except through God and we cannot know God except through prayer.  Prayer gives us a deeper knowledge of God and therefore, ourselves.  Our truest identity is found in how we are seen by our heavenly Father.  We only really know ourselves in the light of God.  If we learn about ourselves through school, work, our life experiences, and the people around us, that is good.  However, we are missing something if we do not include God.  

The first part of knowing ourselves deals with our sin.  When we acknowledge God, there is no room for lies, excuses, or masks.  God shows us our sin while revealing his forgiveness and mercy.  We can only be healed and live fully as children of God through recognizing our sin and through God’s forgiveness.  God loves us as we are, with a completely unconditional love, and it is this love that gives us our deepest identity.  From there, we can accept his love and come to know who we really are.  Looking past our sin, the love God has for us personally as our creator and father is the most pure part of ourselves.  The whole basis for our identity is the fact that each of us is a child of God. 

​We don’t have to search for who we are or try to pick up a bunch of pieces to form our identities.  It is sitting right in front of us, waiting to be accepted and embraced.  Will you embrace your identity as a child of God and accept who you are?  We have value because we were created in the image and likeness of God.  This alone is the most important truth about ourselves.  As St. John Paul II once said, “We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of His Son.”  The love of God is what defines your life and gives you your identity.  My hope is that you would be reminded of who you are and allow God to reveal this truth to you.