WHERE AM I?
One of St. Augustine’s quotes that continues to prove its value and importance to this day is:
One can only know God to the extent one knows oneself
Know myself? Whoa there, my friend. Scary, right? Right!
But wait a minute. Are you thinking you can embark on a journey of that magnitude all….by…. yourself?
In multiple places and in multiple ways Jesus promises us that:
I won’t ever leave you alone. I’ll be with you always.
He will not only BE WITH you on this journey but He will HELP you discover yourself.
If you really want to know yourself, there are FIVE QUESTIONS that must be asked AND answered.
They are: WHERE AM I?, WHY AM I?, WHO AM I?, WHAT AM I?, and HOW AM I?
We will be addressing each of these questions in this series of Blogs. The Blog Title is THE BEST LIFE EVER. Today, we are addressing the first one…..WHERE AM I?
Presuming you are 1) willing to ask these questions and 2), that you are asking the right person and 3) you are willing and able to believe you will receive and thus possess the answers, your quest will be richly rewarded. And you will discover that the answers are truly the path to the life you were created to live.
Dr. Carl Rogers, one of the world’s most recognized authorities on the process of learning and how learning affects one’s behaviors tells us that in all of his years of observing the learning process, that learning which most influenced a person’s behaviors was ‘self-acquired’, ‘self-appropriated’ learning. So, we have to not only be willing to ask these questions, we have to invest the time and effort it will take to come up with answers.
Who to ask? If you are reading this, chances are you live in a community of friends and loved ones to whom you can turn. And whereas it is said that “we cannot see ourselves as others see us”, yes, what they might be willing to share could be helpful. But the sure-fire best place to turn is to the HOLY SPIRIT. In the Gospel of John, Chapter 16, verse 13, Jesus said :
“The HOLY SPIRIT, the Spirit of TRUTH, HE will guide you into ALL TRUTH.”
WHERE ARE YOU? A simple enough question. According to the record we have, this is the first question GOD ever asked. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and tried to hide from HIM to cover their nakedness with fig leaves, HE asked them, Where Are You?
Of course, GOD knew where they were but, did they?
Isn’t the answer to where are you always a matter of “in relation to what or whom?”
And in terms of where I am and me KNOWING where I am, there are two indisputably important relationships. One is WHERE AM I in relationship to myself? How do I feel about me? Do I like myself? If so, why? If not, why?
The other is WHERE AM I in relationship to my Creator?
Where were Adam and Eve before they disobeyed GOD? They were in a oneness relationship with Him. His will was their will, their will was one with His will. His will was done on earth as it was in heaven.
Various theologians down the centuries have posited what caused Eve and Adam to disobey GOD. We know that Satan very cunningly chose to first approach Eve, not Adam. And was it the fruit? Or did Satan know that all he had to do was convince Eve that GOD had given her a free will, and that she possessed not only the freedom but the ability to choose? She could be like GOD. Why, even better, she could be her OWN god.
Adam and Eve went from being on the INSIDE looking OUT to being on the OUTSIDE looking IN.
WHERE ARE YOU in relationship to yourself? WHERE ARE YOU in relationship to your Creator?
I cannot in good faith close this without reminding you, without reminding all of us, that when our physical bodies can no longer sustain our spirits, they will live on…..forever…..but where? Well, there are only two possible destinations….where Jesus is and where the ” other guy” is.
JESUS said, I go now to prepare a place for you, that WHERE I AM, there you may be also. (John 14)
And “the other guy”? Well, he too has prepared a place for us. And if there is any truth in the saying “home is where the heart is” then some of us will be more at home with him where he is than we will be with JESUS where He is.
That is why WHERE ARE YOU? is one of the five fundamental questions we all must ask ourselves.
OH! REALLY? Hmm