Who are you?

 

 

Who are you? Even more important, who do you want to be?

I have always been the kind of person who believes that goals are important.  If you do not have a goal for where you want to go, you will spend your life aimlessly wandering.  Goals don’t always have a time table, and even if they do, they may always be a “work in progress”.  The important thing is you keep striving to accomplish them. 

This is not just true for things you want to accomplish, but also for who you are as a person.  Have you ever thought about the person you are now versus the person you want to be?  Have you ever really sat and looked at yourself, the good, the bad and the ugly and evaluated where you are?  Have you thought, “I like this about me” or “I am proud of this”?  And on the flip side have you looked for places in your life that you see and think, “Ouch, that is not so pretty” or “I need to do better in that area of my life”?

I like to take survey of not just my life but of my self from time to time.  I always start with the one who knows me best, Jesus.  I love the Message version of Psalms 139:23-24.

 “Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me;

Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I am about;

See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong-

then guide me on the road to eternal life.”

We all have messy lives.  We all have baggage and junk that has made us in to the people we are.  The thing is God never called us to sit in the ugly parts of those things and use them as excuses.  He has called us to a new life (Romans 8:1-2), and he wants us to be free from all that binds us and he never called us to be mastered by the hurt, pain or sin in our lives (1 Corinthians 6:12).  A matter of fact, if we allow him, he will use the hurtful things in our lives to shape us into a stronger person and for the good of our character, we only have to allow him (Romans 8:28).

So, that leads to my real thought for today…

Who are you? vs. Who you want to be?

Are you easily angered?  Prone to lose control?  Are you bitter or unforgiving?  Do you find yourself falling into gossip easily?  Are you negative?  Are you compulsive?  Are you dishonest or deceitful?  Do you always jump to conclusions before hearing the whole story?  Are you moody or mean?  Are you overcritical or pessimistic?  The list goes on and on.   The thing is we all have at least one. 

The real question is what are we going to do about it?  I challenge you to search yourself.   Ask someone else?  If you aren’t spiritual, ask someone close to you.  Be ready to hear the truth.  Be ready to do some real soul searching as see what it is in you that you aren’t proud of, what character trait pops out that you later wish had stayed hidden deep inside.  Set a goal.  Set a goal to change “that thing”.  If we all took a little time and picked one thing to work on within ourselves, think how much nicer the world would be.  When you master “that thing”, find another.  Strive to not only set life goals, but personality goals as well.  Be a person you can look at in the mirror, even on stressful days and say, “Hey I am pretty proud of you!”