The late theologian Howard Thurman was able to capture the essence of our existence when he stated that, basically, there are three questions that confront us in life: Who am I? What do I want? and How do I propose to get it? The quality of our life is determined by the way in which we choose to answer these questions. The latter two cannot be answered with any effectiveness until we are able to respond to the first.
Lack of self-knowledge is the primary contributing cause for humanity’s confusion. We have allowed our personal identity to be shaped by a host of things other than self-definitions. Although we are told not to be conformed to this world (Romans 12:2), the reality is we are so entrenched in the things of this world that they have become the means by which we define ourselves. Our responses to reality are constantly changing, based on the mindset of politicians, the whims of the
business world, or the manipulative money-making schemes of the entertainment industry. The problem with using those means for establishing personal identity lies in the instability of all the aforementioned. For those institutions and opinion leaders, change tends to be driven by personal greed and self-aggrandizement. So, when we define ourselves by them, the end result is that we really don’t know who we are.
If our jobs, degrees, plaques, accomplishments, retirement
plans, gifts, children, spouses, relationships, cars, designer clothes, computers, time-shares, credit cards, or positions in the church or in the community were taken from us, we would no longer know who we are. Take away our complaints, murmuring, and grudges; take away our need to be needed, our codependence, and our contentment with the status quo, and again we will not know who we are. Howard Thurman has also stated that within each of us is a place called the “homing instinct.” It is the divine longing to find one’s self. Thurman’s theological anthropology says to us, “[W]ithin us is the spirit of God. God’s spirit searches for identity, for our sake. That identity can only be established when we make the journey inward to God.”
Uncover who you really are and make the journey home. Your identity is wrapped in a manger, bare of the superficial trappings of the world, and exposed to the divine presence of God. The One in the manager is the Savior who can take you home to his Father, who is the One who truly knows who we are.