I was reading a web post of one of my students and he had asked the thought provoking question .. "Who are we?"
Many times in my life I have pondered this question. There are glib answers abounding, of course. There are the socially right and morally right answers. There are the Biblically right answers. There are antagonistic and smooth answers. Mostly, there are individual answers.
One of the first times I contemplated (seriously) this question, I was a greatly busy man. I was working as an electrician, being a husband and father, being an assistant pastor, Sunday school teacher, bible class teacher, lead singer in the choir, playing guitar for the church, holding position of District Elder for the state of Kentucky, and a few other things. I began to lose sight of who I was in the abundance of the things I was doing. Each of these things were integral to who I was, but each one was taking more of me than I had to offer. I came to the realization that I had to stop. I had to get my list down to the one or two things that I wanted to do best and drop the rest.
It is best to do a couple things you love and do them well, than to do too many things and none of them very well.
Still yet, the question persists.
At a later date, I had to figure out if the things in my life that I enjoyed were really the things I enjoyed or did I just do them because they were expected of me. Sometimes, we follow the path before us just because it is the one before us. That is way some folks make sudden shifts in their life. They realize the reason for the path they are walking, and make the changes to find the path they want. Reinventing oneself is often not really reinventing as much as it is rediscovering oneself. To discover oneself, you have to step outside of yourself. Those around you will not understand. Just be ready for that.
While I am on this journey to the Human I am Becoming, I hope that the Human I am Being keeps an even keel.
Many times in my life I have pondered this question. There are glib answers abounding, of course. There are the socially right and morally right answers. There are the Biblically right answers. There are antagonistic and smooth answers. Mostly, there are individual answers.
One of the first times I contemplated (seriously) this question, I was a greatly busy man. I was working as an electrician, being a husband and father, being an assistant pastor, Sunday school teacher, bible class teacher, lead singer in the choir, playing guitar for the church, holding position of District Elder for the state of Kentucky, and a few other things. I began to lose sight of who I was in the abundance of the things I was doing. Each of these things were integral to who I was, but each one was taking more of me than I had to offer. I came to the realization that I had to stop. I had to get my list down to the one or two things that I wanted to do best and drop the rest.
It is best to do a couple things you love and do them well, than to do too many things and none of them very well.
Still yet, the question persists.
At a later date, I had to figure out if the things in my life that I enjoyed were really the things I enjoyed or did I just do them because they were expected of me. Sometimes, we follow the path before us just because it is the one before us. That is way some folks make sudden shifts in their life. They realize the reason for the path they are walking, and make the changes to find the path they want. Reinventing oneself is often not really reinventing as much as it is rediscovering oneself. To discover oneself, you have to step outside of yourself. Those around you will not understand. Just be ready for that.
While I am on this journey to the Human I am Becoming, I hope that the Human I am Being keeps an even keel.
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