Whose are you?

A delightful and insightful podcast discussion, “Community and the human spirit,” includes this:

Shirley: “I think there are moments when we are tempted to forget about who we are”
Harry: “And whose we are.”

“And whose we are.”

Doesn’t that make you smile? Most of us wear many hats, sometimes in a single day. And we may think, I am:

• a student, a soccer player, a football fan
• a dancer a musician, an artist, a teacher, a contractor, a manager, an electrician
• a mom, dad, uncle, aunt, grandparent

While these are some of the roles we may fill, they are not who we are.

Who we are is greater than the sum of our roles. When we strip away the uniforms – for student, musician, aunt – what’s left?

I love that Christian Science emphasizes our identity as God knows us. Starting with the first chapter of Genesis where God’s entire creation, including man, is very good. Man is God's very good idea.

Jesus evidently thought man is a good idea too. He showed us Whose we are -- that we belong to a God of Love and compassion and caring. His life records not only his healing others, but what we call The Sermon on the Mount (Matt chapters 5-7). Guidelines for happiness. Goals we can reach for. How God expects us relate to one another. To be merciful, peace-makers, not to hold grudges – basically to live generously.

He taught a simple prayer that is not just words to memorize; the Lord's Prayer meets all human needs. It's rather incredible that so short a prayer connects man to God so concisely and precisely.

Jesus had no patience with criticism and hypocrisy. Instead, he showed by example that we need to treat others the way we want to be treated. And to grab the initiative and do it first.

It’s good to take time daily to go into our mental prayer closets and shut out the distractions, to carve out time to be absent from the body and present in thought with God.

Who are we? And whose are we? Here is the apostle Paul’s conclusions about identity and community. Life can be so simple, if we let it:

God is our Maker. We are God’s work of art!
Created in our union with Christ Jesus
to devote ourselves to the good deeds
for which God has designed us.

From Today’s English Version, Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible
(Ephesians 2:10)

Click here to see the podcast, Community and the Human Spirit:
Then scroll down to August 29, 2007, and click on LISTEN