Who am I?
Who am I?
Who am I really?
When the story of my life is read at one time, who will they say I am?
This is a question we are faced with in our whole life. I believe from when we are young. The only issue is that when we are small children, we do not have the words to express this. A toddler for instance will be very excited when the parent or guardian calls them a good girl or a good boy. They start picking up on ideas of who they are from a very young age.
As we go through life we encounter different fields of Identity formation. Families we are born/grow into help in our identity formation, and so do the schools we attend, the friends we make along the way, the relationships we foster, our workplaces, and church/religion. All these are fields of Identity formation. They say you can tell a lot about a man by the company he keeps.
Proverbs 13:20.Keep company with the wise and you will become wise. If you make friends with stupid people you will be ruined.
There is a lot that dictates/makes us who we are, true.
However, in my opinion as a human being, a woman, a mommy, wife, sister etc, I've found myself asking myself who am I? Who have I become now? How am I supposed to act? I believe this is what leads most people e.g. men to get into a midlife crisis, and women to have an existential crisis.
People having what they call imposter syndrome. Sometimes you work hard to achieve a particular goal. Live in a particular way. Buy a particular car. However, once you achieve that, pap, imposter syndrome comes along. Are you the one who has achieved this, or are you simply imposing? Are you an imposter? Do you deserve this?
Hence a book such as Becoming by Michelle Obama comes along and becomes a best seller for a long time. She argues that we are constantly in a state of becoming. All of our lives. We are not fully done. You grow, evolve, adapt, you are in a state of becoming.
In all of this whirlwind, I have often looked back to what is said in the bible because weirdly enough, there is no life situation, or question answered better than in the bible. The greatest, most profound and free therapist in existence is God's word, the bible.
Exodus 3;14 And God said unto Moses, I am that I am: God in his might, strength gave a very confident statement, when Moses asked him, when I go back to the children of Israel, who will I say sent me. Elohim, God of Israel said He is who he is.
Looking at the question of who I am I find a lot of confidence and grounding in this statement. We are created in God's image, I am created in God's image. You are created in God's image. In this journey of becoming, we can confidently say we are who Elohim says we are. We are all created in his image, all of us. Who, he then says we are, we are.
Hence when God says he has not given us the spirit of fear, but he has given us the spirit of power, the spirit of love and a sound mind, then we have no business being fearful, we are who He says we are.
If in Joshua 1:6 Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. Strong and courageous I will be.
Who am I? I am who God says I am.
Who am I really? Who He says I am.
When the story of my life is read at one time, who will they say I am?I am all that Elohim says I am.
By Esther Thami.
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