They say that what you are is what you eat. I have never really understood that. OK, I can see that if you do not eat meat you can be called a vegetarian or a vegan, but that is really as far as it goes – it puts you into a category, but that is only part of what you are, part of what you do.
So, what else can define what you are? Your fashion or your taste in music can suggest what age group you fall into. Your accent can suggest where you come from. The car you drive, or your lack of a car, can point to your income group, but not necessarily. The way your children behave can possibly show how good a parent you are. How you behave might point to what you have been through earlier in life. But all these things only show a bit of you – they are not what you are, who you are. Like nationality or political affiliation, they might classify part of you, but they don’t define you.
So what about what you do, is that what you are? I don’t think so. A lot of people do a lot of things under duress – what they do is not what they are, because deep down the real person is there wanting to come out. Some people do things because that is what they have always done – that doesn’t define them, it classifies them as creatures of habit. Some people do things because it is the “right” thing to do, but that is incomplete too – see Who you? for more on that one.
What about what you think? It’s a similar problem there. We can all think one thing and do the exact opposite!
It might be that it is a combination of what you think and what you do that is what you are. Even there, though, there are limitations, inaccuracies. I agree, it is closer to the full picture, but we don’t know everything, even about ourselves, and therefore cannot take every factor into account when we are doing the thinking bit. We might think we are doing the right thing, but be way off the mark.
The reason I am going through all this is because of Thursday’s post. It occurred to me after I had written it that I have now been blogging for almost 3 months, and really enjoying it. But it is like a lot of things, even the time I spend reading my Bible. It can become something that I “do” – a habit, a routine, a ritual. Just after I had finished Thursday’s post, I asked myself just what I was going to do about it. There is no good putting all that stuff into words and not changing myself the way I say I should be. If I say that I can see miracles, I have to do something about it. I have to change. I have to get to the real me that I am talking about – the Child of God me, the me that carries the love of Christ – and getting that real me into action.
It has been a real challenge to me. What I am is not what I write in this blog, but if I don’t even do what I write in this blog, then the definition gap gets bigger, and I become a hypocrite.
Since I wrote Thursday’s blog, I have been stuck in verse 1 of Psalm 108 –
My heart is confident in you, O God;
no wonder I can sing your praises with all my heart!
I just kept reading and saying the first line, saying it over and over. And then I started to pray. Already I have seen answers to those prayers.
And I am going to keep doing just that, letting my faith in the one who made countless galaxies grow, getting my faith to see miracles and wonders.
I cannot define with absolute clarity what or who I am. I know what I should be, though. I should be a powerful Child of the Living God.
To be or not to be?
To be.