Knowing who you are
(Picture opposite shows The Lord’s Prayer in Braille)
I meet alot of people who genuinely don’t know themselves very well. Because they do not understand what they struggle with, or what makes them tick, life takes them continually by surprise.
Spending a lot of time on my own in prayer or in silence, I dwell on things until they make sense to me. Sometimes I am taken aback by my heart’s reaction to people or circumstances, but most of the time, I know how I will respond. There isn’t much grey in my emotional palette, but alot of black and white… I am certainly an extremist. But I’m working on the expression of that.
How well do you know yourself?
How comfortable are you with ‘you’?
Ruth Calver wrote an article for a Christian journal in which she described an amazing experience with her mother-in-law who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. Ruth suggested that they pray together. At this point her mother-in-law had no ability to speak. Incredibly she prayed this prayer:
“Dear Lord Jesus, I don’t know who I am, I don’t know what I am, I don’t know where I am, but please love me.” Never again was she able to form a sentence.
What a last sentence to say though!
This little, scared, confused old lady vocalised perhaps the most important truth of all. Our identity is in Christ. When the body or the mind fails, that is what we have left. For ever.
If I forget everything else, Father, help me hold fast to the truth of that.