Do you know?
Most people,
I would hope, would know their biological parents and feel cherished by
them. But unless they have been taught from an early
age by informed and believing parents, most will one day ask the question, “Who am I really?” They will, if not damaged too much by viewing
a distorted mirror of themselves that has been socially imposed by peers, by
social media, by a dysfunctional family or political structure or false
religion or by evil people of power who have been successful in controlling
their lives, I say they will begin to sense or seek their deeper, true identity.
They will begin to see how they fit in—or even
if they should fit in to the social milieu in which they find themselves. But If they are too beat down they will just
‘go with the flow.’ Sadly many do.
At one level
you are a child of your parenting or lack of it. You are also the child of the significant
people and influences in your life—for good or for ill. You are a child of your mini and macro
culture.
Early this
week I began watching the remake of the 1970’s television feature ‘Roots,’ based on Alex Haley’s book of
the same name. The leading character in
this powerful 19th century saga was an ancestor of the author named Kunta
Kinte. Kinte, a young African man, was captured, enslaved, brutalized
and brought to America to work on a plantation. Kinte’s solid ancestral relationship with his
family, his name, and his stated purpose in life gave him the strength and
tenacity to hold on through unspeakable hardships.
The early
narrative of the story of Kunta Kinte has these three lines spoken by village
elders: “The two most important days in a man’s life is the day he was born—and
the day he asks, ‘Why?’” The second
line is, “The first duty of man is to raise a family.” The third line is “This is not our home, but it
is where we’ve got to be.” Kunta Kinte
internalized all three dicta. His life
map included guiding stars of his name and family values; his purpose to be a
husband and father and a warrior to protect his people; and his quest was to go
home and be home to fulfill the first two. It was a stark portrayal—even an analogy—of the
odyssey of man.
Stephen R.
Covey suggests seven foundational questions (of which I will only elaborate on
the first two briefly in this posting) that we must ask and find answers to if
we are to have a significant life experience and fulfill our potential regardless
of the circumstances in which we find ourselves.
1. Who? Who is
God? Who am I? Who are you? This is the settling of the question of identity. True answers to this question of ‘who’ provide
the divine source of self-identification or self-definition as opposed to the
social source. We cannot act outside our perception of who we are. I believe, and my faith teaches, that the
spirit portion of our ‘soul’ (spirit + body = soul) is a child of God, our
Father in heaven. In the Bible Jesus repeatedly speaks of God as
His father—and our father. We have great worth. So does every person sent to this earth. Live with dignity for you are “a child of
‘royal’ birth: our Father is king of heaven and earth.”
2. Whose? Are we really our own? To whom do we belong. I believe we belong to
God our Father and to Him who redeemed us from death and purchased us with the
price of His blood. This is the ‘good
news’ of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The
ancient apostle Paul wrote, “Know ye not that. . . ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price” (1
Corinthians 6: 1920). We need to
appreciate and align ourselves with Christ and His gospel and to God our Father
in Heaven.
3. How? How do I get back home—to my Father and my
redeemed eternal family?
4. Where? Where do I go to find support and direction
for my life?
5. What? What do I do? What is my proper work in
mortality?
6. Why? What is it all about? Why am I on
this earth? What is the big picture?
7. When? Is there a proper sequence to
accomplish the tasks of my life’s works
If your life
has gotten off track, settle in your mind and heart at least the first things
first: You are a child of God and you
are loved. “For God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish. . . “ (John 3:16).
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