Who am I?

Our cultural obsession with worldly things - money, power, sex, drugs, etc. - stems from many places. Because all of these things appear constantly on television, in music, and truly in all forms of popular culture, it's easy (and self-assuring) to blame our faults on these sources. What's more difficult is to see past this, and look at where these concepts originate. The T.V. networks will only show us what they think we want to see, which means that we all are partially to blame for this issue.

Accepting this, each individual shares in the responsibility of the world's problems. But how did we fail so greatly? Why are we so out of touch with our true nature? The answer: The world is experiencing a breakdown in "sense of self."

A person's identity is of the utmost importance. It is what makes you unique, and it dictates a great deal of how you lead your life. It influences how you act, who your friends are, and what you do with your time. Most importantly, all people share the need for God as an essential part of their identity. This type of identity is natural, and beautiful, but can easily be corrupted by negative influences. When we allow sin (lies) into our lives, we let our true identity as children of God be challenged. Who we really are becomes clouded by our own mistakes.

So what happens when our true self becomes obscured? The system steps in, and lies to us, trying to make us think the obscured sense of self is actually crystal clear. It tells us to do things we know are wrong, but makes them appear to be good. The result of this? Inner conflict. We begin to play roles that are not truly our identities. To clarify, an example:

An 18 year old girl has been brought up in a good household her entire life, and has been given a sound sense of right from wrong. Recently, however, her friends have begun to experiment with drinking and abusing drugs, and have been encouraging the girl to join them. The girl knows that these activities are dangerous, and a bad decision, but feels the need to fit in with her peers. The girl decides to participate, and soon falls into the same bad habits as her friends.

The girl in the story made the same mistake we all do. She saw something terrible be held up by others as great, and fell into it. Notice however, that the girl knew what she was doing to be wrong. Why did she do it? She felt a need to be one with her friends. She created an identity mask, covering up her true self, and putting forth an image to fit in with her friends. These masks are convincing; almost everyone uses them to hide who they really are, and eventually the individual may come to believe more in their masks than in themselves.

Let's break it down a bit. We know that everyone has a personal identity that is inherently good, and involves a personal relationship with God. We know that this identity can be challenged, and that we can create "masks" for ourselves, in essence becoming someone else to please others. Therein lies the breakdown of self-knowledge. The question: How can we fix it?

Simple: Be honest, be real. Consciously seek out who you are, and work for a closer relationship with God. There are many false goods in the world, and many people who seek to keep us from our true identities. Metaphorically speaking, there are many roads leading to nowhere, to an emptiness and lack of fulfillment.

How can we find the right path? Simple, we just listen.

5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"

6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.

-John 14:5-7