When You Realize Who You Really Are

All your life you think about the question, “Who am I?” Or at least it’s true for me. When we can get clear of the clutter and confusion of everyday living and peer into the deep well of our soul, what is it that we see reflected back?

For me, there are two design principles that our Creator used when he built me.

First: I’m deeply loved. I’m connected to a vast universe that was created out of love. And, I’m connected to the Creator himself. I’m not isolated or deficient. Those connections are an essential part of who I am.

Friends and family remind us of that deep connection. And loneliness is what you feel in the absence of the reminders. 

Second: I’m called. I’m purpose-driven to be a booster rocket. God designed me to get things off the launch pad of possibility and into the thin air of reality. I have an ability to dream and to help people dream. God designed me to help them build the dream on the launch pad of possibility.

There I do the hard work of defying gravity. God gave me a passion for pulling dreams of the ethereal, uncommitted world of imagination and to begin speaking about them as though they were real. It’s an act of faith. The Bible calls it “the substance of things hoped for.” (Heb. 11:1)

It extends to identity. When people begin dreaming of themselves as a beloved son or daughter, this is at first an act of faith. Perhaps everything they’ve experienced has given them evidence that it’s not true. But then if the truth is that they are loved, to dream it and believe in it usually requires the faith of others.

This is identity work. It often requires help from someone older and wiser who can love you to a new level. A surrogate father. A caring counselor. Deliverance ministry. Righteous teaching.

Have you finished your identity work? Do you know that you’re loved? And if that’s a settled issue, have you moved on to your purpose? Do you know why God put here on earth?

Don’t get tangled up in answering purpose questions if you haven’t settled the bigger question of who you really are. You are enough. You are OK. You don’t have to prove anything.

Do you have anyone in your life who can help settle those questions? Andrew Shearman was that for me. He helped me to see that I was born to be loved. Let me invite you to listen to him in this video.