When someone asks, “What do you do?”, what do you say?
I run a business selling XYZ.
I am a mom.
I work in IT, law, healthcare, accounting, finance.
I am between jobs and looking for a new opportunity.
This is fairly easy to answer.
But when someone asks, “Who are you?”, that gives us pause.
Who am I without my labels?
We have labels for our work (part-time, full-time, unemployed, homemaker)…
our personality (introvert, extrovert, ambivert)…
our status (single, married, divorced, separated)…
our role in the family (child, parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle),
our size and shape (S, M, L, XL, skinny, petite, plus-sized, curvy, slim, overweight, obese, tall, short).
But who are we really, underneath all the external layers and people’s opinions of us and how society classifies us?
You are so much more than what others say of you.
You are not the same being you were at birth, as a child, as a teen, as a young adult.
You are being shaped all the time, and your thinking is evolving as well, which then influences your behaviour, interactions, experiences, and outcomes.
There are complex, rich, wild imaginings going on inside your brain all the time, that you cannot even put into words.
You can choose who you wish to be and who you do not wish to be.
You are a child of God.
You are unique, right down to your fingerprint.
According to Dr. Ali Binazir, that you exist at all is itself a miracle: he estimates the odds at 1 in 102,685,000.
Psalm 139 of the Bible (TLB) says:
13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit them together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it. 15 You were there while I was being formed in utter seclusion! 16 You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book!
Why not pause now and ask, “Who am I?” — and allow the answers to flow from the deepest places of your soul.