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Who Am I?

When this question comes up, I always think of an exchange from A Chorus Line. The director asks a dancer, "Who are you?" She answers, "I am a dancer." Then he asks her, "But who will you be when you can no longer dance?"

This is a question that everyone should ask themselves. Then they should look within and search their hearts until they come up with an answer that satisfies them. Once they come up with a satisfactory answer to the question, they should then do everything they can to live their lives in such a way that does not cause them to have to re-examine the question.

So, who am I? It really isn't that easy narrow it down to one thing. I am a son. I am a brother. I am a husband. I am a father. Those are all important and respected titles, but they don't define who I am. If you take any one of them away, it really doesn't lessen my role as the others. The only one that I have unbreakable ties with is that I am a son. Nothing could ever change that. Still, it does not define me. If it did, it would negate, for the most part, anything that came after it. We could all stop once we achieved the title of son or daughter, but what kind of life would it be if we never did anything to improve our status beyond the fact that we were born? That's not much of an achievement and not one that we can claim credit for anyway.

I am a high school graduate. I am a guitar player. I am a photographer. I am a sports fan. This list could go on and on to include anything I have ever done. Again, none of them encapsulate who I am. I could take a bunch of these kinds of things and bundle them together to say that I am a talented person or that I am a person who is passionate about certain things. Again, any of these descriptions are just that. They do not bring with them any importance; any legacy.

I am a child of God. That is what defines me. I can take anything that came before that and throw it away, for in this alone am I complete. As a child of God, I can also be a brother, a father, a husband and a passionate, talented person. But without first being a child of God, everything else leaves me sorely lacking. Being a child of God allows me to be all of these other things better. All of these other things can go away and I lose nothing of myself.

As with that dancer in A Chorus Line, who will I be when all of the other stuff is long gone? I will still be a child of God. No one or nothing can ever take that away from me. I can't take any material thing to the grave with me. Death will claim all of my possessions. But because I am a child of God, even death won't be able to contain me. Because of who I am, I have the promise of eternal life.

Yes, I am a child of God.

Learn more about this author, Chad Yarbrough.
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